


Entr'acte

by twocentnuisance



Series: Zootopia Omnibus [2]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Becoming a Couple, Confining in each other, Cunnilingus, Explicit things, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Fondling, Guilt and Fears, Kissing, Knotting, Like fluffy buns, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, PIV, Partners to Lovers, Romance, Vaginal Fingering, admitting to feelings, blowjob, finally smut, okay mild butt play because this fandom needs more of it!, predator/prey kink, scents and smells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-09-07 04:59:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 56,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8784106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twocentnuisance/pseuds/twocentnuisance
Summary: Or the interlewd, where Nick and Judy go on a date with each other to discuss the state of their relationship, who they are to each other, and what both truly want. (Hint: it's very similar). Step 1: Be Nick and JudyStep 2: finally admit what they've been feeling for a long timeStep 3: consummate their happy and mutual admittance in the best of waysStep 4: RejoiceTakes place after the conclusion of ARS MORIENDI.





	1. Parallel

Across a city, at any given time, there are mammals preparing. They are preparing for any number of events, all consequential to some varying degree. To talk or to act. To go or stay. To be or not. Before any action, there is preparation.

 

In their respective apartments, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde prepared for each other.

 

Nick, still living in the halfway-refurbished basement of a small apartment building (thank God for the landlord owing him several times over), studied himself in the mirror as if he was a mark, ripe for conning. Above his head, the pipes rattled and thrummed. On the other side of the cement wall that separated what could constitute his living space from the rest of the basement, the water boiler room, where several dozen units were stacked in neat symmetry like beer cans, hummed and slushed their content throughout the building.

 

Nick was excited for tonight. And scared. Very excited for the possibilities, and equally, if not more so, scared of those same possibilities. An ugly combination of excited and scared, and by his logic, he had every right to be experiencing both.

 

His reasoning for genuine worry was not unfounded. Most of Nick Wilde’s life had been a collection of sad memories. A faded, beaten, and scorned picture book of struggle and disappointment. Snapshots included an eternally suffering and exhausted mother, a father who stole as much as he could from them to fuel miserable habits, a cub who learned too early and too suddenly that the majority of the world hated him with the casual disdain of seeing shit on the sidewalk.

 

He looked in the mirror, his stomach beginning to tighten further and further into a sick and uncomfortable knot at the prospect of adding yet one more awful snapshot to that picture book if he managed to fuck this up.

 

He and Judy had officially agreed to talk over dinner. Ergo, a date. An actual date. With her, of all mammals. Judy Laverne Hopps. The one and only. Just him and her.

 

And while he so desperately wanted to call her to check in, to triple check that she really meant it in the hospital and not on the subliminal nudge of the painkillers, he had to resign to exchanging brief ‘check-in’ texts over the past two days that equated to:

 

Nick: How’re you hanging in there?

 

Carrots: I love my family I love my family I love my family I’m slowly losing my mind.

 

Because over the past two days, a small migration of rabbits had voyaged into Zootopia; her parents and roughly one hundred out of the two hundred and seventy five siblings. Nick also knew that now was not the best time to meet most of her family. Because both of them knew that the ZPD had made a call to her home when she was hospitalized, and that her family had finally received the second worse call you can get when your daughter is a police officer.

 

Second Worst: your daughter has been severely injured on the force.

 

Meaning, she is now missing a piece of her, be it physically or mentally. Likely both.

 

The Worst: your daughter has died serving her city.

 

Meaning, the last time you’ll ever see her is in a casket before we nail it shut.

 

Nick knew next to nothing about rabbit culture as a whole, but it didn’t take much to figure that if that much family was on the first available train in after such a call, then it wasn’t wise for Nick Wilde to be present just yet. He could practically hear the conversation that would’ve taken place there.

 

_Mr. and Mrs. and many Hopps siblings, pleasure to meet all of you. Nick Wilde. Yes, Judy’s handsome, vulpine partner. Yes, I do have fangs and claws that were once upon an ancestor ago used to eviscerate your kind. Yes, those freshly imprinted scars on your daughter’s neck are, in fact, from a predator’s claws. No, he wasn’t a fox. No, you have nothing to fear, please stop looking at me like that._

_No, I would never hurt her._

 

Regardless of how that conversation would actually

 

_likely_

go, meeting Judy’s family was another task for another day. That talk, and whatever familiar hell that would surely follow, would come later. First and foremost, the talk with her. And whatever caliber of fallout that would follow if it should go disastrously.

 

Now, Nick began thinking of every deity he could recall so he could get down on his knees and pray to them all so that tonight didn’t go South.

 

“Okay,” he said aloud, closing his eyes and flexing his claws in an attempt to pull the stress out of his arms. “Alright, enough. You are fine. It will be fine. You are Nick Wilde, best looking red fox in this miserable city. You are not . . . okay, not completely freaking out. That’s just pre-date nerves talking. And she’s Judy Hopps. Carrots, of all mammals. Yeah, you’ve got some things to discuss, but it’ll be fine. Because it’s her. It’s us. We will be fine. Or, at the very least, functioning.”

 

Nick exhaled, and loosened the full Windsor knot down, just an inch. Semi casual attire. White button down half tucked in, black sport coat, dark jeans, tie not noosed around his throat. Appropriate for the small eatery he had picked for them to meet at.

 

The door clicked open then shut, and the sound of rattling bottles and tiny footsteps echoed into Nick’s ears.

 

“Finn, we’ve talked about this. You know I’m not going to have any beer before I go out tonight,” Nick said aloud without facing his former comrade-at-arms.

 

“Don’t be such a bitch,” was the low and rough reply by the fennec fox who walked by Nick to his couch and opened a beer bottle. “Stinks of stressed fox in here and she’s gonna smell it the moment she enters any room unfortunate enough to house you. You’re gonna need one to cool those nerves so you don’t string her out by proxy.”

 

Nick heard the beer bottle soaring through the air at his head and deftly caught it. It was either that or letting it shatter across his abode. If he could call an, albeit nice, halfway refurbished basement level studio his ‘abode.’

 

“Besides,” Finnick continued, sitting back and sipping his beer, “what’s there to worry about? Not like this is a blind date that’s gonna likely end in disaster. You’re close with her. You work together. You’ve actually managed to save each other’s lives throughout the short time knowing one another. Not a lot of mammals can say that about each other, so that’s gotta account for somethin.”

 

“Of course it does,” Nick replied, deciding to take his friend’s advice and began sipping his beer, which tasted a whole lot better then he thought it would.

 

“So what the hell are you so strung out over?” Finnick said with a slight edge of impatience in his voice.

 

_Over the possibility that this goes nuclear and ruins the best relationship I’ve had my whole life._

_Over the very real possibility that it’s one sided; that she only loves me in the capacity of best friends because that’s just how bunnies act and I fucked up and got too attached._

_Over the fact that she will finally realize that I’ve got sharp teeth and claws and something with sharp teeth and claws nearly killed her and I had to show my belly to save her and that she’d be safer being far away from me._

_Over the fact that she will inevitably find out about what I’ve done. Because while the past is the past . . . a crafty fox once told me ‘past determines future.’_

 

“Possibilities,” Nick answered, feeling his stomach suddenly sour and curdle the beer now floating in it.

 

Finnick rolled his eyes and took another swig. “Still don’t see the problem. Judy seems to like you. Enough to be tolerated, anyway. Laughs at all your dumbass jokes, and I mean actually laughs, not fake-laughs because she feels obligated to.”

 

“That’s because I’m actually a riot,” Nick said with a grin.

 

Finnick stared at Nick from the couch, face completely unamused, as one massive ear twitched once in annoyance.

 

“Like I said,” Nick said aloud, looking back in the mirror for one last inspection, “a regular riot.”

 

“All I see is how you hang on her every word,” Finnick launched back into the topic of Judy, “and how utterly captivated you are over that rabbit whenever I see you two together. Which is all the damn time, I should add. So clearly she doesn’t mind spending time with you. Otherwise she woulda done the wise thing and issued a restraining order against you.”

 

“What can I say? I love spending my time with my Carrots. And if she loves hanging with me, who am I to say no to her?”

 

Because how on Earth could anyone in a sane capacity say no to the walking, breathing, absolute wonder that was Judy Hopps? How could Nick Wilde deny that he hadn’t fallen completely in love with a rabbit, someone who at first irritated the shit outta him but had grown on him like the world’s most stubborn weed? How on Earth could he ignore how quickly and easily she exhilarated his body and electrocuted his senses any time he sensed her?

 

Which, as of late, was a lot, with each occurrence having more and more charge to the attention even just her scent did to his body. _How . . . O’ . . . HOW_ could a rabbit fully enrapture his attention, his drives, his need, in the manner only Judy Hopps could?

 

Once upon a time, vixens of his own species, and admittedly other attractive females from other species got his attention. But now, a rabbit . . . This was comparing apples to blueberries, and Nick would happily take the blueberries any day of the year.

 

Finnick smirked at seeing the red fox lost in thought, and decided to throw some proverbial cold water on him. “Yeah, I know, tough to ignore. Like how I see you sneaking every peak you can at that tight little ass of hers.”

 

In three words, the line was crossed. Nick spun on his heels and audibly growled at the fennec fox, ears flat back and hackles spiking, lips pulling over his teeth, pointing one claw at Finnick.

 

“ _Watch. It_.”

 

Both Finnick’s paws went up and his gaze went to the ceiling, showing his throat in instant submission. But Nick still caught a brief wisp of a smile that flashed on his muzzle.

 

Banter was their language, insults and sexual inferences their syntax. It was an expected and natural part of predatorial conversation, especially between two that had spent so many years together in close proximity. A continual, back-n-forth demonstration of wit and control. But every now and again, one would step too hard on the other’s tail, so to say, and a little ‘corrective attitude demonstration’ would be in order. Those were also expected, especially between mammals that were male, predator, and discussing . . . ‘sensitive’ topics.

 

Such as appropriately discussing prospective mates’ rear ends.

 

“Just sayin, man,” Finnick said to the ceiling in a cautious tone, knowing it best to backtrack, “not disrespecting her, I wouldn’t truly dare, but my oh my . . . for a rabbit, she’s a head-turner. And that scent of hers is hot enough to light a fire.”

 

_Every time I inhale, moreso when she’s turned on, it’s like inhaling liquid fire._

 

“You know, I actually kinda get why you are so _fond_ of her. Hey, have you gotten to feel her tail yet?”

 

Nick didn’t answer, feeling himself and his anger deflate, the hard line of his mouth staying closed. No, no he had not. Yet. But more times then he’d like to admit, yes, he had found his outstretched paw a hair’s length away from the cotton swab of an end on his unsuspecting partner, and always withdrew. Violating a social norm? Yes. Violating the personal space of Judy? Oh yes. Asking for a Judy-sized beating? Undoubtedly yes.

 

. . . But oh God, how badly he wanted to touch her tail, that unbelievably cute accent that made her rear that much more impossibly hypnotic, how it made her butt look too cute and too desirable all at once as that white tuft would sway back and forth with her movements. And, dare he actually admit it, he also wanted to nip at her butt, if not just to hear the adorable squeak she made whenever she was surprised. And giving her a little love-bite on the end seemed like the best way to achieve such a goal.

 

Feeling Finnick’s gaze burrowing into his side, waiting on his answer, Nick mumbled through a mouthful of disappointment, “Nope. Haven’t touched it.”

 

“That gonna change after tonight?” Finnick asked through a small, toothy grin.

 

_God I hope so. That would certainly be nice, amongst other things._

“We’ll see,” Nick cautioned, not wanting to add the possibility of verbally setting himself up for disappointment.

 

Now, Finnick just sighed, his patience gone. “Alright chico, you want some actual advice so that you really don’t fuck this golden opportunity with that catch of a female up?”

 

Nick stared into the mirror, looking but not really looking at himself and said nothing, so Finnick went ahead.

 

“You can’t go into this thinking it’s going to blow up in your face. You do that, and I can promise you it will.” Thank god for mammals that can understand what isn’t spoken, Nick thought.

 

“So I should tackle this on the expectation that it will go great?”

 

“No, you go into it and have a good time regardless of expectations. In fact, leave them at your door when you head out. Just enjoy yourself, enjoy her, let the time just pass you both by. Let ‘what will’ happen . . . happen.” Finnick stopped talking and checked his phone, taking another sip of beer.

 

“Yeah, okay,” Nick started, letting the words sink in, and feeling a little better on account of the beer and the older mammal’s advice, asked “what else you got?” wanting to gleam whatever other sudden insight Finnick had suddenly and miraculously acquired.

 

Finnick looked back up to him, face pinched in confusion. “The hell you mean ‘what else you got?’ That’s _all_ I got, chico.”

 

Finnick kept drinking and looked briefly back at his phone. “Oh! Nah, that’s not all I got. One more thing; you got rubbers? I know how hot and heavy and desperate it can get out there in the moment, and there ain’t nothing worse than having to fish through your pockets and find you came ill prepared.”

 

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. “Couldn’t get her pregnant even if I wanted to, Finn.”

 

The fennec fox’s eyebrows went up, satellite dish-sized ears twitching. “Nice, bareback on the first go around. Shit, on _every_ go around. No rubber or hormone suppressant or birth control goin to ruin your two’s fun. Man, your date keeps looking better and better by the minute. Lucky bastard.” If Finnick continued his ribbing, they fell on deaf ears, for Nick Wilde’s mind’s eye had latched onto the hopeful, lurid fantasy of seeing a certain rabbit completely naked and wanting. Something he had wanted for far too long; had only imagined with growing fervor and deepening lust for far too long.

 

“And lookit that,” Finnick brought Nick’s attention back to the present, “right on time. Didn’t you agree on 6:00?”

 

Nick spun and headed for the door. “And that’s show time. Lock it up when you leave, alright?”

 

“So long as you lock that rabbit down after tonight,” Finnick mumbled to himself through a grin.

 

“What was that?” barked the red fox halfway out his door.

 

“I said Go get em, Slick,” Finnick yelled back.

 

~

 

Judy stared into the small mirror in her apartment, now in the umpteenth dress she had thrown on at her one sibling’s insistence. Now it was, thankfully, down to one sibling, and not one hundred and eight siblings and her parents trying to stay within inches of her the entire damn weekend. Which was wonderful, at first.

 

Until the tears continued to flow far past the constantly issued ‘I’m alright I swear.’

 

And the sobs at the ‘No, I will not resign. Yes I am aware of how dangerous my job is.’

 

And finally: ‘Yes, a predator did this to me.’ Followed by the silence from her entire family.

 

Quiet gasps at the ‘Yes, the doctor’s think I’ll probably have the scars for years, maybe the rest of my life.’ More tears. Paws covering mouths open in shock.

 

Once at a county fair. Again in a city. Their worst fears realized once more.

 

It was only her mother’s sage advice, parted to all young Hopps kits, that kept her from completely losing her patience at her family over the course of their stay.

 

_Family will always do two things; drive you up the wall, and love you unconditionally._

 

The Hopps family excelled at both. And Judy loved them for it. And after two days, she was tired of the first part. Very, very tired of being guilt tripped for doing what she loved. Amongst other things.

 

But they had left, on Judy’s gentle nudge that she was fine and would call if anything happened or if she needed anything. And now, Judy Hopps was feeling not tired at the constant familial bombardment, not humiliated at the reminder that she almost died, and definitely not

 

_Scared out of your mind about seeing a city full of predators because one predator nearly tore you open spilled your blood pulled you apart_

 

Scared about tonight. Nervous? In magnitudes, but mostly a good kind of nervous. Because she was going on a date. To talk. With Nick Wilde. She was going to have dinner with the one mammal that absolutely made her mind and body melt into a state of pure joy and contentment.

 

She was going on a date with a mammal she had been continuously falling in love with every since she’d ‘enlisted’ him as an honorary police officer.

 

Now, thankfully, it was just Judy and her one sister Jackie, who knew better than to join the flood of exceptionally painful comments begging Judy to leave the force. No, Jackie stayed quiet on the entire matter. She was, however, quiet vocal about preparing Judy for her date.

 

“Nah, not that one either,” Jackie Hopps commented. Her sister, having inherited only and all of the brown hues from her father’s side, sat center most on her sister’s bed, tablet in paw and multitasking between whatever was on the screen and prepping Judy for her date.

 

“Why not this one? What’s wrong with this one?” Judy pleaded, now also a little unsure about this outfit but not sure why she was unsure. The whole ‘dressing up for a date’ thing was a little more difficult than she had anticipated.

 

“Doesn’t show off your butt enough,” was her sister’s reasoning, which made both of Judy’s ears turn a shade pinker than normal. But Judy twisted around anyway so that she could examine her rear in the mirror.

 

. . . And Jackie was right; this dress wasn’t doing her end any favors. Off it went. In her underwear, Judy trekked to her closet, past the discarded pile of clothes that also wouldn’t suffice.

 

“You also wearing _those_?” Judy heard from her bed with a tiny amount of good hearted snide in the comment.

 

“Wearing what?” Judy returned to the mirror, another dress in hand.

 

Her sister eyed the set of underwear on Judy. Judy followed her gaze down her front, past her almost non existent dewlap – the absence of which sucked immensely. Judy was about ready to ask any deity she could think of if she could trade for Jackie’s more impressive ring of supple fur that collared her neck, if just for tonight.

 

A plain pair of underwear. A light shade of blue. Nothing exciting about them. “What about my underwear?”

 

Jackie raised her eyebrows at her sister’s question and her obliviousness. “Not planning on putting out on the first date?”

 

Judy’s ears went a shade pinker. “What does that have to do with my underwear?”

 

“Just saying, pantie selection matters if you’re thinking about making this a hot date,” was Jackie’s answer. “Goes the extra mile for the males, I promise.”

 

Judy’s brows furrowed in thought. They _were_ a plain pair, and there _was_ nothing exciting about them. She went over to her dresser and pulled out a more frilly pair, a matte black pair with a tiny, delicate crimson bow on the front. She exchanged pairs and observed in the mirror.

 

Yup, this will do, she thought with an impish smile.

 

“Ohhh so you’re not entirely closed off to the idea of this date being just a ‘wine and dine’ occasion,” Jackie teased through a spreading smile. Judy ignored her, exhaling heavily once through her nose and began putting on her next outfit for inspection. Her thoughts drifted to imagining a fox standing before a rabbit, a rabbit wearing nothing but cute underwear adorned with a bow.

 

Judy imagined his teeth showing in a rare, delightfully vulpine smile, how his teeth perfectly scissored and intersected with each other with every movement of his jaws, as if displaying their edges, as if demonstrating how sharp they really were.

 

Silence for a few moments, then Jackie sniffed at the air, eyes widening a little. “ _Oh_. Oh, you are _definitely_ thinking of rutting on the first date. Go you.”

 

Judy spun on her heels, fists balling and feeling her face reddening. “Jackie! That is _not_ fair! You can’t use _that_ against me.”

 

“Oh I’m not, but I’m sure the lucky buck you’re meeting tonight’s going to be happy as hell to smell _that_ the moment you meet up _._ ” Jackie sat back on the bed against the wall, smug as can be, as her sister threw on another dress.

 

Judy ‘hmmph’d and spun around to examine the new dress, which immediately brought a smile to her face, because it looked great and this was the one and she turned and her butt was perfectly accented in it. Wonderful. Judy imagined seeing her fox smile at it, and at her, and at her in it.

 

_Imagine his face at seeing it come off._

 

And then her sister’s words sunk into her mind, ruining the beginning of her fantasy, and Judy felt a small ping of guilt at not admitting to whom she was going on a date with. After her . . . ‘hostile encounter’ with the ocelot Raymond Strauss, and the newly minted damage he had forever imparted on her neck, admitting to her family that she was going on a date with a predator, even if it was her partner Nick . . . wouldn’t have been a smart move. Too much, too soon.

 

Another Bonnie euphuism: all things in good time. And that talk would come.

 

But for now, best to let the dust settle. And that meant being innocuously vague about her date. Hopefully her sister would be fine with just dressing Judy.

 

“Soooooo,” Jackie warmed up, “tell me all about him.”

 

_Shiiiiiiiiit_.

 

“It’s just a first date, Jackie,” Judy tried playing it off, “nothing much to tell.”

 

“Liar-liar, cottontail’s on fire,” her sister chided back. “I know my sister. And my sister doesn’t go on blind dates or even dates with males she’s only met once. You _know_ him,” Jackie said with uncompromising certainty.

 

“In some capacity, yes,” Judy smiled, thinking of the way Nick insisted that he always be wearing reflective aviators while on duty, the way his tail would sway back and forth after a moment of smug accomplishment, the way he always checked on her throughout the day, always disguising his check-in’s as the result of boredom, the way he smelled ( _oh god how great he always smelled_ ), his quick ( _and loooong_ ) tongue, HIS SHARP TEETH AND CLAWS . . .

 

_How he has saved my life twice not once, but twice._

_How I am sure that I am maybe – probably – most definitely in love with him and with everything about him._

 

Jackie’s one eyebrow raised itself as she stared at her sister, completely lost in some pleasant spring of familiar memories.

 

“Just in ‘some capacity’, huh?” Jackie wondered aloud, which snapped Judy back to the present. Jackie deduced that Judy had gone through enough questioning over the past few days, and decided to leave the details where they stood. She’d hear them all eventually, anyway.

 

“Uhm, yup!” Judy quickly brought herself back to the now and examined herself head to toe in the mirror, happy to have a distraction that would shift the focus away from that conversation. A lovely black and blue dress that made the amethyst of her eyes stand out. Jackie hopped off the bed and walked up behind her sister.

 

Judy noticed her sister’s absent smile, and both gazes in the mirror landed on her neck, over two dark pink scars, two vertical lines to the left and right of her windpipe, each with three tight stitches holding the wounds shut.

 

“Have we told you enough of how much all of our brothers and I would love to murder the son of a bitch that did this to you?” Jackie said from over Judy’s shoulder.

 

Without even thinking, Judy responded, “I honestly thought Nick was going to when it happened.” Judy had made it a strong point to repeatedly tell her entire family how her partner, her best friend, a fox, was the sole reason she was still up and walking.

 

Jackie seemed to consider the thought, something Judy was unsure of. Despite Jackie being somehow alright with the concept of a fox being Judy’s partner on the Force, Judy was careful in divulging any characteristic about Nick implying that he was, or could be perceived as, aggressive or dangerous. To Judy surprise, Jackie asked, “How is Nick? Doing okay?”

 

Judy felt herself nod and stared at the mirror, at herself and her sister, but for a moment only saw fragments of memory. Memories of a fox, teeth bared and growling, gun raised and unwavering at her but not really at her. Of horrible pain, feeling her throat slowly open more and more with each passing second.

 

Seeing her partner’s face before she briefly blacked out.

 

And seeing his handsome and caring face once more, waking back in his arms, at seeing his face completely and entirely on her, at feeling his paws cradle her with such delicate intimacy and immediately knowing

 

_I’m going to survive. I’m going to live. Because Nick Wilde just saved my life._

 

Judy was once more brought back to present tense by a small rabbit’s paw on her shoulder. She looked into the face of concern.

 

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back out?” was what Jackie asked.

 

What was implied was ‘are you sure you’re ready to head back out into the city which is full of predators, who will all smell the drying blood of your scars, who still remind you that you were the one that almost put Dawn Bellwether in power, who will react how predators react to smelling bloodied and scared prey?’

 

Ergo: Will you be able to see predators as civilized, rational, and nonthreatening mammals, after one just tried to kill you?

 

And at that question, Judy suddenly felt a lump form in her throat, because she couldn’t even lie by saying she had an answer to her sister’s implied question. Which scared the hell right out of her.

 

At least she knew the answer, and knew how best to hide a white lie, to the verbally expressed inquiry.

 

“Yup,” Judy stated, perhaps a little more proudly then necessary, “I’m ready to head out. Just like with Gideon. One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch. I wouldn’t let it stop me.”

 

“Gideon just marked up your face a little,” Jackie countered. “Wanted to make a point. And he could’ve done much worse, even on accident.” Jackie paused, nose now nervously twitching. “Judy, this predator almost killed you. That was his _intent_.”

 

Judy turned and looked at her sister, taking her paws in her own. “And Nick stopped Raymond, and saved me. I was caught –“ Judy forced the next words out, the shame and embarrassment behind them evident and painful – “I was caught unprepared and underestimated him. And Nick was the one who saved me.”

 

Whether or not the fact of who saved who registered with Jackie (it did), the sister did not let it show, instead, her eyes widened at learning another piece of information about the mammal that nearly killed Judy. Due to the mess found by Captain Ashmore, Judy and Nick had been called for a quick debrief; the public should know as little as possible about Raymond Strauss and whatever organization had sent him after the Bellwether conspirators. The last thing they all needed was another unwanted press leak.

 

“So that monster’s name is Raymond,” Jackie slowly repeated, committing the name to memory. “Any other details you could impart for your dear sister?”

 

“No, Jackie,” Judy said with a mock-stern tone and a smile. “I’m sure eventually the rest of the details will be declassified and made public. For now, hush-hush.” Jackie sighed, smiled, and shrugged in submission of letting the topic go.

 

“And you and Nick are okay?” Jackie moved onto the next topic she wanted to know all about but didn’t want to make her curiosity obvious, asking with only a little bit of caution in her voice.

 

“Nick was the first mammal I woke up to at the hospital,” Judy responded, “I’m sure we’re okay.” She said the last sentence with as much conviction as she could manage, because ultimately they _were_ okay. That much was evident after Strauss’ arrest and incarceration, evident of how Nick stayed with her through her brief stint in the hospital.

 

‘Completely’ okay, however, they were not. There was the slightly worrying memory of Nick making a strong effort to avoid her after the explosion at the restaurant before Raymond’s arrest . . .

 

But, that was part of the reason for their date tonight. Talk they had agreed to, and talk they would, even if Judy had to pry it out of her partner with a set of pliers. If there were splinters to pull out from their feet tonight, that topic was likely going to sting. But like any splinter, it had been ignored for too long and had to come out.

 

“How is he about, uhm, those?” Jackie asked, motioning to her throat. Judy followed suite, fingers tracing the wounds on her neck. She pictured the heavy-as-lead mask of worry that seemed nailed to Nick’s face every time he looked at her in the hospital, every time he looked at the scars, the way his face never seemed at least satisfied with every assessment he made of her wounds.

 

“You know,” Judy started, voice a little smaller than she wanted it, “I . . . actually don’t know.”

 

_Ha, imagine that. You don’t know. Quite a lot of unknowns going for tonight’s meet up. Should be fun._

 

Judy felt the frustration begin to compound with her worry, and made the effort to stamp them out. You are both fine, she thought. You have things to talk about, things that you need to talk about, but you are both _fine_. You both have survived much worse.

 

“Oh!” Jackie suddenly came alive and alert, quickly moving back the bed and grabbing her clutch, fishing around for something.

 

Judy instantly thought of the last instance Jackie had acted just like this, excitedly reaching into her handbag while trying to set Judy up for a date years ago. “Jackie, I swear to God if you pull out a condom –“

 

Her sister grinned and raised her eyebrows. “You flatter me. But no, no condom. You’re a big girl bunny, and you can make that call if you want.” Judy almost replied that a rabbit condom likely wouldn’t fit Nick because . . . well, research suggested fox’s were a little _bigger_ than a buck, and therefore the condom was not cross species compatible.

 

And then she remembered that they wouldn’t even need a condom because biology.

 

And then realized how excited she became – again – at the joy of realizing that they wouldn’t need a condom.

 

And then realized she was thinking about how happy she was at the realization that they wouldn’t need a condom.

 

And lastly, Judy realized just how horny she was.

 

Judy felt her ears go red as rubies.

 

Jackie sniffed at the air again. “Boy, this guy must really be something else if the thought of him alone can do _that_ to you. Anyway, I do have something that may be of dual interest for you.” And with that, Jackie summoned a small black loop of cloth.

 

A petite, midnight-colored choker. Without waiting for permission, Jackie looped around Judy and snapped it into place around her sister’s neck. Both observed her added flair in the mirror, and both broke into wide grins. It hid the scars and made Judy look that much more beautiful.

 

“Not gonna lie,” Jackie muttered, “this just dialed your sex appeal from nine to ten. And I’m sure your date will appreciate it paired with those cute undies you wisely put on.” Judy just nodded, smiling at the feeling of . . . just feeling beautiful, at feeling sexy, and the excitement of anticipating Nick’s reaction.

 

Wordlessly, Jackie and Judy walked out of her apartment, stopping on the street.

 

“You, my dear, look absolutely lovely for tonight. Classy, yet sexy,” Jackie remarked with a smile, taking a small step back to observe her sister one last time. Judy quickly reclosed the distance between them, embracing her sister in a full body hug, feeling arms wrap back around her.

 

“Thank you,” Judy whispered into Jackie’s shoulder.

 

“For what?”

 

“For not asking for me to leave the Force and this city,” Judy mumbled. “And for helping your helpless sister for her date tonight.”

 

“A conversation not I, nor anyone but mom and dad, have the right to talk with you about,” Jackie responded. “That, and I know that this is living your dream, and there’s no way anyone could take that from you. And my joy. Date prepping is so much fun. You should always call me before you go out and we can Muzzletime so I can make sure you hit this city looking your best.”

 

“And you’re sure you don’t just want to share my apartment and bed with me for tonight?” Judy offered one last time.

 

“Nope,” he sister responded enthusiastically, pulling back enough to smile at her, “I’d rather sleep on the street than block any late-night fun you and your date may be planning,” Jackie said, hooding her eyes and biting her lip.

 

Judy rolled her eyes, but then smiled and leaned in to deliver a kiss on the cheek and a quick chin rub.

 

“Mom and dad rented out that hotel down the street and I’ve still got the room for the night. I’ll just catch the train back to the burrow in the morning,” Jackie continued, giving a quick peck and chin rub back. “Call or text me if you need a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

 

“I will,” Judy said, “but I likely won’t need to.”

 

“Figured,” Jackie grinned, eyebrows waggling, “I expect _every detail_ in the morning!”

 

Judy winked and started off for the restaurant, feeling the cool air enter her lungs, feeling her heart start to palpitate a little faster, feeling the building excitement in her belly at getting to see and hear and smell her fox.

 

Their brief topic of who loved who in the squad car on Nick’s first day came to mind.

 

_You know you love me._

 

Tonight, Judy hoped that she might finally get to admit to her fox what she really and fully meant when she agreed to Nick that yes, she _knew_ she loved him.


	2. Perpendicular

The city’s atmosphere thrummed with life. Condensation rose in ghostly columns from the grates and manhole covers. Mammals walked alone, in pairs, in groups. The sickle of the moon’s face hung amongst the skyscrapers. Nick faintly detected the erratic flight signatures of bats in the night’s sky, darting between buildings under the cover of shadows. ‘Acquaintances’ of the information broker Vladimir Dracul, no doubt, scouring the city and its occupants high and low for secrets, on the behest of their sanguivorous employer.

 

The walking did Nick good. It set his mind at a comfortable betwixt between the raging feelings of excitement and fear for tonight. Allowed him a brief respite from reciting all the possible ways he could say what was on his mind, what had been on his mind for God knows how long now. Enabled him to focus on something other than his continuously fraying nerves. Allowed him to mellow out a little before he met her.

 

But while it did decrease the fear and reservations he had (what is done is passed), the walk did nothing to soothe the excited electrical charge that ran through him at the prospect of having a date with Judy.

 

Sure, tonight was just to talk about the case and what had happened during it, but if it went well ( _it will go well, it will go well, it will go well_ ) then maybe something more would happen ( _god I hope so, god I hope so, god I hope so_ ). The thoughts of happy possibilities danced around in his mind’s eyes, each scenario more entertaining and beautiful then the last.

 

In his daydreaming of her, he did not notice them until they were within feet of each other. And by then, by both conscious scent recognition and hearing their familiar laughter, Nick Wilde knew it was too late to double back and avoid the inevitable confrontation.

 

A pack of African Wild Dogs, headed by an old business partner of Nick and Finnick’s, a male named Jacoste, were about to cross the street adjacent to him. As if on some unknown cue, all of the dogs turned to him in near synchronization.

 

_Just. My. Luck. Well, judging by the surprise in their eyes, this wasn’t a planned ambush, so at least I’ve got that going for me._

 

“Jacoste!” Nick said with an ounce more joy than normal in his tone, “fancy seeing you here. And I see you brought the whole family.” Within a moment, Nick Wilde was surrounded. No snarling or growling yet, not that he had done anything to warrant an attack or altercation, but he felt the hairs on the back of his head stand up at feeling any possibility of escape cut clean off.

 

Also, attacks from pack animals tend to leave plenty of horrible scars. Mauling by one individual was bad enough. From eighteen at once? Hospitalization _at best_.

 

Jacoste exhaled a thin mist of cigarette smoke, and said in a thick South African accent, “Oy, Nick. What in the _Fuck_ are you doin out walkin’ around in this neighborhood?” Unintentionally funny since it was a nice neighborhood and Jacoste made it sound like it was the opposite of nice.

 

“Out for some air,” Nick alluded, smiling in spite of himself, quick to turn the conversation around and away from him. “What’s your pack doing out and about?”

 

“Well,” one of them started, Seymour, if Nick identified his voice and scent correctly, “we were thinkin about heading down to the Docks, seeing what the tide’s bringing in–“

 

Speech stopped as Nick raised his one paw in the air, knowingly fully what was coming and what had to be done. Jacoste, and the dog second in charge, a female Nick did not know, stared hard at Nick, not in anger but in a possibly quizzical and definitely testing manner.

 

“I’m going to have to stop you right there,” Nick sighed, reaching into his jacket pocket and summoning his police badge. He heard a collective group of gasps.

 

Silence. Then Jacoste, who said in a low voice, “So it’s true, then. You really have become one of them.” Nick said nothing but tapped the golden shield of his badge with one claw.

 

“What do they got on ya?” One wild dog inquired.

 

Nick shrugged. “Nothing. I volunteered and joined of my own volition. No ‘blink twice if they’re standing right behind you’ nonsense. No sir.”

 

Jacoste snorted through his nose, a look of disgust and disappointment dawning on his face. “So that’s it, then . . . “ Jacoste seemed to straighten up. “Well, considering you know about our past ventures, you gonna arrest me and my lot?”

 

Nick did. He knew that they were smugglers and runners, damn good ones at that. Their head had the uncanny ability to ‘find’ almost anything a client could ask for. Nick also had an inkling of their business model, some of their locations, some business contacts, their main fences, and on and on. But then again, he knew plenty of mammals with such connections in this city. He also knew far worse.

 

“Nope, not tonight, anyway” Nick said, pocketing his badge. “Off duty, out of sight, out of mind.” Numerous wild dogs leaned their heads back in surprise at his answer. Jacoste didn’t move nor break his stare at Nick.

 

“And if you’re ‘on duty’ and you happen to find us out doin some business?” Jacoste asked.

 

A pause. “Then I will come after you with the fullest extent of the law,” Nick answered truthfully.

 

 _God, however said the truth hurts wasn’t fuckin’ around. Never thought I’d be saying that to an old business partner. And that_ stung _._

 

Jacoste gave Nick a new look, something the red fox couldn’t quite place. The circle of wild dogs seemed to be tightening around Nick, and judging by the flattened ears, hard stares, and frowns he was receiving, they weren’t tightening up for a group hug.

 

A sharp yell sounded through the air, and it did not come from Nick Wilde. Jacoste had given a sharp bark at his pack, and within moments, they were dispersing to the other side of the street. Jacoste, and what was likely his current mate, were the only ones standing in front of Nick.

 

The female gave Jacoste a worried look, and Nick knew all too well what was going through her mind. Together as a pack they could stand up to a lone police officer. But two on one? Or even one on one? Not at all desirable odds for someone on the wrong side of the law. But Nick knew it wasn’t coming to that. Not by the look on Jacoste’s face.

 

“Go on, lovely,” Jacoste purred to the female, nodding with his head to the pack. Still looking worried for him and looking distrusting and disgusted at Nick, the female wild dog turned and crossed the street, not without Jacoste giving her a firm tap on the rear.

 

“Good girl, she is,” Jacoste affirmed to Nick as if the fox actually knew her. “But really, lad. You’re actually a fuckin cop now?”

 

“I am.”

 

The wild dog’s face pinched, linked he had smelled something rotten. “Unbelievable. Truly.”

 

“Would you like me to show you my badge again?”

 

Jacoste made no show of appreciation at Nick’s humor. “No, I don’t. I’m in disbelief.”

 

“And why is that?”

 

“Not even two years ago you were another mammal of the night making ends meet. We were amicable partners. Businessmen. Mammals that understood _it_.” Jacoste said _it_ with some palpable venom, and Nick caught it.

 

“And because I’m now a cop I suddenly no longer understand _it_?” Nick retorted back in an even voice, although there was maybe just one drop of venom on his own pronunciation of ‘it’.

 

“Because now you’re a part of the problem for us predators,” Jacoste said, voice low, even, and slightly angered. “That partner of yours. The rabbit. Her frame of mind I get. I don’t sympathize nor agree with her, but I get it. Big bad preds built from the genes up to kill. She’s got a point. But we’re beyond that. We preds are no longer killers. No longer houndin after prey with only the intention of pairing them with fine wine. We’ve been beyond that for a long time now. You know that.”

 

“I do.”

 

“Yeah, I like to think you do, but I know that she, and damn near the rest of the police and the government here, don’t. The majority still see us as if we were no different than when we were hunting on all fours. It’s still us on the bottom end of the income brackets. It’s still the majority of preds living in low income housin or on the streets. It’s still our toothy mugs on the evening news with the daily crime reports, still sportin’ muzzles while the prey criminals get the backstage pass on public humiliation. Still sharp teeth and claws on warning signs for ‘danger.’ Still passed over for jobs and credit and loans based on those sharp ends alone. The rest of the prey world still sees us as the collective evil.”

 

“They certainly paraded Dawn Bellwether’s mugshot and arrest when we locked her up,” Nick reminded him.

 

“Yeah, that they did. And how many more prey criminals made the evening news after her run was over? How many other prey criminals get colored mugshots in the paper like us preds? How many more prey mammals was it that have gotten their turn to roast on the seven o’clock or on the front page?” Silence for a moment, since Nick knew the answer to that one and wouldn’t dare say, out loud, that Jacoste was right.

 

Fangs made headlines.

 

“Once the one sheep was behind bars, it was back to business as usual,” Jacoste took another long and vengeful drag from his cigarette. “Nothing has changed, it’s the same shit on a different day. And here you are, thinking it’s a new day, dressing up as a cop. And that makes me think that you’ve forgotten about the state of affairs around here.”

 

_No, no I have not forgotten, you pompous ass. I lived through the same miserable shit as the rest of you. Suffered and slaved through it. Remember every insult hurled my way and rejection stapled to my body for what I am. Felt the guilt of having to resort to crime just to not starve. Only I got a chance at changing it, got wise, and took it._

But Nick Wilde wouldn’t dare say that. Not to another predator that was older than him, not to one that had been born at the end of the Collar Commission Era. Not when Jacoste’s pack was still across the street, all anxiously watching the standoff between the two predators.

 

Not when Nick knew that he had struck gold in life, pulled the winning ticket, won the lottery, whatever euphuism for luck you could label it as. Not when he had a Judy Hopps on his side and every other pred in the city had nothing but a loaded gun in the form of claws and teeth placed in their paws at birth.

 

“What’s your point, Jacoste?” Nick asked, aware of the time and aware of something truly uncomfortable now slithering around in his gut. “You really think that I’ve forgotten the divides between classes since becoming an officer?”

 

“The point is that you need to remember that you’re one of _us_ , Wilde,” Jacoste spat. “Conman you once were, cop you may be, but predator you are, first and foremost. Don’t you go forgettin’ that the world will see you in that order for the rest of your life, including your new bosses. What you are now doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. What you are will always be known.”

 

Now, Nick Wilde was a coiled spring. Now, under any other circumstance, Nick was ready for a fight, be it verbal or more. But he knew that now was not the time for him to come back, verbally or otherwise, at the bevy of insults being thrown in his face.

 

So Nick stood tall and took it. Jacoste knew it, and continued.

 

“You’re not even one of the big preds. Lions and Tigers have got their size and strength to flaunt around. But you, a fox? And all of the merry stereotypes your species’ embodies? One fuck up, one bad allegation on the Force, and they’ll throw you to the ‘lepers’, right back to us, right back to The Marshes, to Pack Street, to Happytown. Back into the system that just gets a sick kick abusing us for all we’re worth. A blue and gold badge doesn’t cover up the orange of your fur. No one in City Hall or at Precinct One will forget that. And no pred in this city will ever forget that you traded in and became a cop. You’d be wise to remember that, lad.”

 

With that, the wild dog threw his cigarette butt onto the street and walked off to rejoin his pack. Entering back into his fold, and with the female hugging him and shooting Nick a look that could light fires, the pack sauntered off into the city.

 

Nick knew he only stood still for a moment before he resumed his path to the restaurant.

 

Was it the right choice, becoming a police officer? Absolutely. Judy Hopps had shown him the warmth of stepping out of the dark and into the light. He knew it was the right way – the only way – when Judy had the honor of awarding him his badge.

 

But that didn’t detract from the constant mask of caution he wore since joining the force. Because, why, exactly? Because, yes, he was the first police officer fox. Because yes, he did have a stereotype or two to battle every day to civilians and even to a few Officers on the Force. Because he still knew, and talked with, conmen, hustlers, small time criminals, mammals the ZPD wanted so badly to jail for any reason they could back with enough evidence. Because –

 

‘Conman you once were, cop you may be, but predator you are.’

‘You’d be wise to remember that.’

 

_Not a day goes by that I forget it._

 

~

 

Judy Hopps was excited, for lack of a better word. Clutch in paw, she had to consciously reprimand herself, because instead of walking, she was actually bounding and bouncing on her way to meet Nick.

 

She knew that some mammals were giving her awkward stares; perhaps feeling a little uncomfortable at seeing a rabbit grinning ear-to-ear, bouncing back and forth, and doing an occasional 360 degree spin in midair, for what could constitute as a walking gate.

 

But, you know what? Judy Hopps didn’t care, because she was daydreaming about having a date with a certain fox . . . even if they had some splinters to remove, a date was a date and if it didn’t go completely to shit, then it just might become something a little more than a date. A bunny could be hopeful. As could a fox.

 

But that is not here nor there, not yet. Here, something is about to happen. We never notice that something’s wrong until it’s about to go wrong.

 

Judy suddenly noticed that she was alone on the street.

 

The follow up thought to this awareness was that it was normal, since there were plenty of times she found herself walking town alone back in Bunnyburrow.

 

And then came the realizations. Slowly, one after another. Each adding another stone of worry in her stomach.

 

One, this was a major City, not Bunnyburrow.

 

Two, there had never once been an instance in which Judy had seen an empty street.

 

And three, the street was suddenly quiet. Judy could still hear the city overall, but this was like hearing its normal volume significantly lowered. Pocketed. Tucked away into a dark and private space.

 

Streets in a city are never completely quiet.

 

Yet here she was, a female rabbit walking alone on a desolate street in the middle of the city.

 

Her acute sense of hearing brought the fact that she was not completely alone to her immediate attention.

 

On the other side of the street, walking her way, a wolf was walking –

 

Judy felt all the hairs on her body stand on ends. She almost stopped moving.

 

. . . That . . . that is not a wolf, Judy thought. Her nose began twitching.

 

It looked like a wolf, but it was very tall, too tall to be a wolf of any sort. The creature was thin, like a cheetah, but it’s fur was a burnt orange, its tail too short. The limbs were too long, almost stretched to a disturbing proportion. It had the long, purposeful, even delicate, gate and pace of a giraffe, its legs seemingly taking their time in their slow rise and fall from the ground.

 

And right there, Judy realized why she was so unnerved. It was the purpose of the pace of the mammal. A slow, long, and _purposeful_ gate that conveyed a hidden speed and agility, and that demonstrated just how quiet the mammal was. Judy continued walking forward. The wolf, wearing round-framed glasses and dressed in a clearly expensive looking pea-coat, didn’t as so much glance at Judy.

 

Until they passed side by side with only a street between them. They looked eye to eye, and Judy felt her body start moving a little faster before she was even aware of it. Judy kept moving, as did the other mammal. The world became that much more quiet. The city held its breath. The silence outside of their footsteps was amplified to an uncomfortable degree.

 

The moment she turned the street corner, Judy’s body went flat against the nearest building, her ears erect and angled back to the street. She expected to hear the quick and running footsteps of the mammal, and heard the opposite.

 

Quiet and slow footfalls. She heard the sound of the mammal’s steps significantly decrease and fade away into nothing. The mammal, female by the brief scent Judy gleamed out of the air, had continued down her side of the street and into the darkness of the city.

 

As if on cue from the larger universe itself, mammals seemed to return onto the scene, instantly flipping it from a waking nightmare to just another city street. Judy stared at the other building, feeling the cold of the concrete seep through her clothes and past her fur.

 

_Holy God. Holy . . . God._

 

She became aware of how hard her heart was beating. Judy suddenly felt a sharp burning sensation on her neck, underneath the thin black choker. She began massaging the wounds as delicately as she could.

 

“You’re fine,” she whispered to herself, “You. Are. Fine.” Which was such a funny thing to be saying, coming from a cop who had barreled headlong into far worse, _knowingly_ barreled headlong into far worse, and from a cop that had just made it a point to vacate off an unusually empty

 

_almost empty_

 

street. And that seven and a half second encounter had been one of the scariest she could readily recall.

 

There was only word that could perfectly sum up the eye that looked into hers: cold.

 

Beyond cold. Cold implies a state that may be subject to change. In the one second Judy looked into the other mammal’s eyes, Judy was instantly sure that those eyes were cold from day one and weren’t going to change anytime soon.

 

Her mother and father always said ‘trust your gut above all else.’ And that motto had done Judy Hopps plenty of good in plenty of situations. And even if it was an overreaction, or a fragment of how her last case almost ended with her six feet under, Judy was glad she hadn’t stuck around for a second more with that particular predator.

 

“Wait.” Judy actually said aloud, almost too loud, to herself. “Wait, did . . . did I just react to a predator . . . like some dumb, country bumpkin, stereotypical bunny?! Like I had any real reason to be afraid!?”

 

The Judy Hopps MindsetTM kicked on. Judy resumed her walking, fists held firmly at her sides, occasionally stopping so that her foot (unbeknownst to her) could _thump-thump-thump_ against the sidewalk in an infuriating mixture of annoyance and shame.

 

That was absolutely ridiculous, Judy thought. Absolutely unacceptable! You are beyond that, so much better than that! You know better because you should know better. You made that . . . that awful mistake at the press conference and you have worked, day in and day out, to purposefully remind yourself that you are better than that. You are not unjustly afraid of predators. Nick is one, and you couldn’t get any more cozy with a predator than with him! Half your coworkers are predators and there’s no problems there! That . . . that mammal just had a tough aura about her. Maybe she had a terrible day. Maybe worse. But there’s nothing concrete she did you can justify such a biased reaction on!

 

Looking across the street as she mentally berated herself, Judy saw them, and was walking towards the pair before she had even fully formulated the dialogue.

 

The bunny approached two lions, a young couple by the looks of how the male was in the middle of telling some grandiose story to the clearly humoring female.

 

“Hi!” Judy said to them in a chipper tone, stopping right in front of them, “I’m so sorry to interrupt your evening, but I’m afraid I’m a bit turned around.”

 

Judy actually felt herself internally wince at lying; she knew exactly where she was. But, that was besides the point.

 

“And I was hoping that you two would know where ‘Fraise’ is? I’m going on a date and in my excitement to impress the guy I’m meeting up with, I thought I had memorized the directions there. And, well, here I am! Not quite sure where it is.”

 

“Oh! Oh!” The male lion snapped his claws as if remembering something vital, “Oh yeah! Keep going down Worthington Avenue here and it will be one block over to the left.”

 

“Uhm, not to interject,” the female lion reached over and smoothed his paw over with hers, “But I’m pretty sure that she should go ‘up’ Worthington and it will be one block over to the right.” She said this with a gentle inflection and a small smile, as if to not bruise her date’s ego.

 

Judy watched as the pair discussed which direction the restaurant actually was. All the while, Judy paid conscious attention to the twitching of her nose, the speed of her heart, the rate of her breathing, and the overall feeling in her stomach.

 

“Oh . . . yeah,” the male lion conceded, his ears flattening to his head and a look of disappointment on his muzzle. “Cause, we’re looking at Worthington from the east and she’s coming at it from the West . . . Yeah, uh, sorry. Amanda’s right. Fraise is up Worthington here and over one block to the right.”

 

“Why thank you so much!” Judy said to them in an upbeat voice. “Enjoy your date!” she waved as she started up the street, one ear pivoted behind her to catch their conversation.

 

“Damn, I was sure it was down Worthington . . . “

 

“Ah, it’s alright. By the way, what was that you were saying about the part were the buffet exploded in a sea of flame?”

 

“OH shit! Yeah, alright, alright, so, my guys and I started smelling the pungent aroma of gasoline . . . “

 

Conversation. That was all it was. Not one mention of a stupid bunny, or that bitch cop who says we’re natural born killers, or any snide remarks.

 

_Great! And lookit that . . . you were FINE._

Judy Hopps was fine. Almost entirely fine. Sure, there was (and likely always would have) that tiny buzzing in the back of her head and in her heart whenever she approached a predator. Entering condition orange. Be on Alert. An evolutionary safeguard still functioning. And that was no problem, because within a few moments of interaction, and finding that a predator was of no concern, the red alert in her head went quiet. A safeguard for all occasions, and one that could – thankfully – be switched off.

 

Her talking with the lions showed that she, Judy Hopps, was still okay around mammals with sharp bits and protein dependent diets. A terrifying and painful encounter with a criminal who happened to be an ocelot and getting a weird vibe from God-knows-what on the street were not indicative of predators as a whole.

 

Judy thought of Nick, and her heart picked up for all the right reasons and she felt a gentle heat run through her body.

 

She allowed herself a smile, feeling the giddy excitement returning to her mind and body.

 

Overheard, her acute hearing picked up the inconsistent and tumultuous beating of thousands of wings. Her excitement was tampered. For the longest while, before she and Nick had found a drowned squirrel in a coffee cup, she had naively thought the sound of wings at night just meant birds. But, as experience and Nick cued her in, most birds preferred sleeping at night.

 

Bats. The flurry of activity in the night air was from the bats. Most, she knew, were innocent and good-natured mammals that were just carrying on with their night. Judy also knew that a few – or maybe more than a few – were employed to a certain blood-drinking information broker and were up to anything but good.

 

Immediately, she began running through what few information distribution laws she knew off the top of her head, and purposefully put a stop to that. She was about to go on a date, after all. The last thing she wanted to do was to purposefully bore Nick on their night out. That could wait until they were on their next shift.

 

Resuming her journey to Fraise, her thoughts returned to the mammal that she couldn’t identify. An old thought surfaced in her mind. An old rhyme her brother’s would sing and hum in a purposefully creepy tone to her and any younger siblings unfortunate enough to hear it. She heard fragments in her head, and after a few iterations, it came back to her with full clarity.

 

_Late last night and the night before_

_There’s a monster – a wendigo – knocking at our door_

_Body of the wolf, antlers of the deer_

_With claws and teeth, he feeds on your fear_

_His skin is taut_

_His bones are old_

_His mouth is watering_

_His grip so cold_

_And if you see him, hunting by the moon_

_Run inside, lock the doors, hide in any room_

_And if he finds you_

_Do not scream, not one note_

_Or he’ll pull your heart out_

_through your throat_

Judy felt unease grip her insides. “Heh, all that mammal needed was antlers, and viola.” For some awful reason, the joke did nothing to alleviate her. She turned both ears around, and not detecting any long and purposefully quiet paces behind her, focused on the image of meeting a certain male fox.

 

~

 

Nick entered the restaurant and began sniffing, ears depressing to his head, looking for any detectable signs of a certain female rabbit. Females? Plenty. Rabbits? Only two, one male and one female with scents intermingling, and the female’s scent wasn’t at all familiar.

 

_Okay . . . Hello, Karma? Nick Wilde here, if you could be as so kind as to have this night go smoothly, that’d be great. I’ll let you bite my butt for it later._

 

He had arrived first at Fraise, and for some reason, Nick found himself a little unnerved at being the first to arrive. Like, what was he supposed to do now, wait? Mammal watch? Under other circumstances, sure, that’d be a viable option, but he was feeling his heart running a little quicker than normal and was feeling thirsty and wasn’t able to fully cement and streamline his thoughts.

 

First things first, though. Nick signaled to the Maître D’, a pig named Alfonse, whom Nick had contacted for specialized arraignments for this evening.

 

“Ah, Monsieur Wilde,” the Host signaled, “your table is ready whenever you are. You are welcomed to attend the bar while you wait for your company for this evening.”

 

“Thank you, Alfonse.” Then, in a voice a little more hushed, “that makes us even Stevens?”

 

The pig’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Yes, yes. I thank you again for your assistance in that ‘matter’ of mine. Although I must say, if I can be so bold, you were long coming in calling in that particular favor.”

 

“There’s a time and place for everything,” Nick said through a mouthful of charm. The pig, fully buying it, smiled and ushered him further to the restaurant.

 

If there was one thing Nick Wilde was truly having a hard time giving up from the old life, it was relinquishing the dearth of favors that were owed to him. Few things were as reassuring as having guaranteed money/help/services/advice/what-have-you from others.

 

Some old habits die hard. And some old habits are just too good to let die.

 

The fox waltzed over to the bar. One beer couldn’t hurt while he waited.

 

There were plenty of mammals at the restaurant, a casual yet not too laid back establishment that specialized in fruit-based entrees. Under the heavy, sweet scents of fruits, syrups, and everyone’s collective scent pool, Nick didn’t smell her approaching. It would be two times out of three that night.

 

He felt a paw on his shoulder, and finally smelled her, and his heart rate picked up for all the wrong reasons.

 

_No, no, no, damnit all!_

 

Nick Wilde turned to face another old comrade of arms. A female caracal named Mara Brisbane. Another old ‘work acquaintance.’ And an old hookup. One that was not a love interest, per se, but a ‘shoot a text and see if they’re free’ interest.

 

“Thought I smelled a familiar fox,” the cat tilted her head at Nick, a smile spreading across her face. “How’ve you been, Casanova?”

 

_Oh, c’mon . . . As if I wouldn’t run into anyone else noteworthy tonight . . ._

 

“Mara,” Nick started, the natural yet distant and controlled charm back on his face and in his voice. “I’ve been quite alright. How’ve you been? Haven’t seen ya around in quite a while.”

 

Within a moment, Nick knew exactly how she was doing, judging by how quickly her paw covered his own on the bar counter.

 

His mental picture of ‘how she was doing’ was further reinforced by the hooded gaze she gave him, paired with a curling smile, and followed by the very clear and startlingly fierce scent of her heat. Mara responded, “I’m doing good, but I’m feeling a little bit better seeing you here.”

 

_Oh. Shit._

As subtly (if you could even call it subtle in any realistic capacity) as he could, Nick slowly (actually a little quickly) withdrew his paw out from under hers and crossed his arms, lest he leave another opportunity for her to try and close the physical distance between them.

 

The caracal did not at all look deterred. In fact, she looked more amused. Or maybe more aroused. Probably both. Cats of any variety, including Mara, liked a bit of a chase.

 

“Ohhh,” Nick started off a little lamer than he would’ve liked, “Uhm, yeah. It’s, um, good to see you out and about Mara, but I’m, uh, well –“

 

“Oh my goodness, do I have THE Nick Wilde flustered?” she said to him, drumming her claws on the counter top, “that’s certainly a first. Something changed over the past few years to make you lose your cool?”

 

Naturally, Nick took a half true, half mocking tone of offense to her comment and used it to put himself back on the offense. “Lose?! My cool?? No-no-no, I have not lost, nor will I never, lose my cool,” Nick quickly and sternly corrected her. “I am and always will be the definition of cool.”

 

“Says the fox that genuinely believed he was well above average in the size department,” she tittered to herself as her nails drummed the glass of cold liquor handed to her.

 

“Coming from the caracal who said she’d never had a fox worth remembering,” Nick retorted. “You were certain to tell me just how wrong that statement of yours was.”

 

Mara smiled widely. “Aw, have I wounded your pride?”

 

Nick folded his arms and snorted, ears going back down to his head. “Nope. Nuh-uh. Not getting into this with you.” And he said it with good reason. In the past, their hookups often started with what at best could be called low grade banter and what at worst could be called trading potentially mean spirited barbs. Nick had chalked it up to some old predatory thing, establishing dominance through a bit of force, verbal and otherwise. Tit for tat, scratch for bite, lick for thrust, etc.

 

“And why is that? Are you seriously telling me you’re not dressed like _that_ tonight to do some ‘hunting,’ Wilde?” Mara gave Nick a quick set of elevator eyes.

 

“I will have you know, Nick said with his head raising just an inch higher, “that I am about to go on a date.”

 

Nick would be a liar if he didn’t derive an ounce of enjoyment at seeing Mara’s eyebrows go up and her ears flick once, the long wisps of fur at the peaks of her ears swatting at the air in what was hopefully annoyance or agitation.

 

“. . . Really?” Mara questioned.

 

“Really,” the red fox replied through a smug grin, feeling a little more proud at the verbal affirmation of the truth. He was unaware that his tail had begun to wag. Mara, on the other paw, did notice.

 

“Hmm. Well, so long as your date isn’t bigger than a wolf she should be more than pleased with what you’re bringing to the table,” Mara wiggled her eyebrows at Nick’s lower half, and then smirked at Nick’s newly irritated face.

 

“I will also have you know that I am not bringing her here with the sole intention of sleeping with her,” Nick corrected the caracal.

 

“Oh? That right?” Mara teased back, wanting so badly to see how much she could pry out from him. “What are you bringing her here for?”

 

“To talk,” Nick said curtly. And God willing, hopefully anything more than just talking, he thought.

 

Mara snorted once in ways of a laugh. “Just to talk, huh? About what? The politics behind taxes in this city?”

 

“Now, that’s not up for me to disclose. That’s our personal business, and it’s just for her ears and mine.”

 

“Sounds serious,” Mara tried to bait him into revealing more.

 

“Perhaps some parts will be serious, but with her, I know I’ll have a great time regardless.”

 

“You’re that confident that the serious parts won’t ruin it?”

 

Again, the hustler’s mask came on. Internally, Nick felt a wave of worry grip his insides, but outside was the opposite. Internally, he was thinking: Mara, you have no idea how many deity’s I’m praying to, including Karma herself, for this to go okay and for this to not blow up in my face.

 

Externally, what came out of his mouth was, “I will take whatever comes my way. I will let what will happen . . . happen.”

 

Mara nodded, seeming to consider this line of reasoning. “So if she _happens_ to wind up naked in your lap, you’ll take it?”

 

Nick instantly imagined Judy sitting in his lap, facing away from him, naked as the day she was born, muttering that he could touch her tail. So long as he was gentle, he could practically imagine her saying.

 

After a second too long of staring off into space, Nick’s attention snapped back to the smile that was spreading across Mara’s lips. Nick shrugged, and smiled in spite of himself anyway.

 

“Well,” Mara straightened up, “I’ll leave you to your date then, whenever she arrives. Wouldn’t want to get between a fox and his fun.” As Mara walked by him, she stopped, and placed one paw on her former associate’s shoulder.

 

Her tone was suddenly serious. “What’s it like?”

 

Nick had to physically stop his eyes from rolling into the back of his head at the obvious joke set up, and decided to take the bait if that meant Mara would leave him alone.

 

“What’s _what_ like?”

 

“Being a cop.” Oh. Of course she knew. Mara’s face betrayed no hint of malice, perhaps only a bit of morbid curiosity.

 

Nick waited a moment, just to see if it was a joke incoming, and when her face didn’t shift to conceal laughter, he told her.

 

“Feels like a I finally have a purpose in life. It’s one where I’m trying to help mammals, not con them out of their money and valuables.” Nick paused, before saying, “And I really like it.”

 

Again, Mara seemed to seriously consider this posit. She then asked, “Don’t you miss anything about your old life?”

 

Nick thought of his ‘old’ life. Disappointment, fear, loathing, poor, almost starving, hustling, money in, money out, product, cigarettes and alcohol, sex without love, lonely thoughts, cruel world, cruel circumstance, hurt, hurt, hurt.

 

Nick thought of his life after he met Judy. Gleeful, happy, funny, Judy, exuberant, consistent income, taxes, a job, coworkers, Judy, no debts, beautiful, reliable, I’m-in-love-with-Judy. Nick Wilde felt a smile, genuine and soft, warm across his face. Comparing the two phases of his life was apples and oranges, but it was like comparing a rotten orange to a ripe apple.

 

Again, Nick shrugged. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss anything, but I’m telling the full truth in that I love my new nine to five, who I’m partnered with, and that I wouldn’t trade it to go back to hustling.”

 

Whatever passed through Mara’s face, Nick couldn’t properly nor wholly identify it. Mysticism, confusion, irritation, disappointment, some brief flurry of emotion he couldn’t fully describe.

 

The fox sighed. “Is it that hard to believe I’m actually happy?” Nick asked his old lover, meeting her gaze.

 

“I think it’s the first time I’ve actually heard you . . . seen you so happy,” Mara almost whispered, her tone genuine but face still unreadable. “Oh Nick . . . How you have changed. Well, as much as I’d love to interrogate you further, I’ll finally leave you to your evening. If the night doesn’t go completely to shit, I’ll be down and about, I’m sure. Oh, and if becoming a cop hasn’t changed you too much and your partner’s cool with it, I’ve got bud and nip and I’m willing to share.” She winked at him.

 

Nick made to say something, but didn’t, only rolling his eyes and gently exhaling. Mara continued by Nick, but not before leaning over his side and giving him a quick yet firm kiss on the cheek. And with that, she continued past him, prowling off.

 

Nick stood still at the bar, staring at nothing in particular, feeling the lingering heat of the kiss fade away.

 

‘How you have changed.’ How, indeed.

 

Nick turned to look at the entrance, to wait and see his rabbit walk through the front door, only to actually see Judy standing roughly fifteen feet away. Nick felt his stomach plummet into his pelvis and his heart ice over.

 

Judy stood perfectly still, ears firmly held high and facing him, tote bag clutched firmly in her paws, eyes wide, and mouth drawn in a taught and closed line. Her nose twitched. She made no move to greet him. Which meant that Judy had absolutely witnessed Mara’s little exchange on Nick.

 

_Karma? Yeah it’s Nick again. Scratch what I said earlier. You can go ahead and strike me dead, now._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that took a lot longer than i was hoping. But, finals, setting up an internship, personal issues, doubt, anxiety, fear, holiday cheer, all that good stuff got in the way. Sorry, next chapter should come out a little faster than this one did. Next chapter, Nick and Judy have some serious stuff that they needed to discuss yesterday. Cant wait!
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and comments are always deeply appreciated. Happy holidays everyone!


	3. The Relinquishing of Their Guilt and Fears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by DrummerMax. Thanks again on the rush order, man!

Judy tried. She really did.

 

But at seeing Nick’s crestfallen and almost completely defeated face, she couldn’t keep up the charade a moment longer.

 

Judy Hopps broke down into a fit of barely controlled laughter, uncaring of who saw. Looking up to briefly glimpse the fox’s now confused and almost comically agonized face, she began walking over to him, pointing weakly to her ears with one paw and trying to cover both her mouth and laughter with the other.

 

Internally, behind the small fit of laughter, Judy Hopps was replaying several very important snippets of the conversation she had overheard.

 

_I will have you know that I am about to go on a date_ (And the tail wag he was completely unaware of when he delivered that line was cute to a painful degree).

_But with her, I know I’ll have a great time regardless._

_Feels like I finally have a purpose in life._

_I love my new nine to five, and whom I’m partnered with._

 

If she could jump with joy in addition to laughing, she would. The splitting smile on her face was a testament to that.

 

Nick felt the fear and worry leave him in one breath. He practically felt his insides thaw back to a comfortable temperature with that one exhalation when it all clicked together. “Of. Course. You did. How much did you hear?!” he demanded.

 

“Practically all of it,” Judy admitted through an impish giggle. “By the sounds of it, I arrived right when she had you flustered seven ways to Sunday. I wanted to see how ‘The Slick Nick’ handles himself with the ladies.”

 

“Wait, if you heard all of it, then you had to have seen – ”

 

Judy quickly nodded, eyes widening and regaining some degree of control over her laughter. “Oh, you mean just how daring that caracal was? Boy, she went right for the kill, metaphorically speaking, trying to lace fingers after telling you just how _happy_ she was to see you,” Judy smirked.

 

“And you were gonna let me roast . . . ” Nick accused, pointing one clawed finger at her. “You LET me roast!”

 

Judy shrugged. “Just for a few seconds more. That panicked and grief-stricken face you made when you saw me was just too cute, so I thought it best to savor it while I had the opportunity.” She bit her lip and rocked on her heels.

 

Nick folded his arms, and through the chagrin, forced back the smile from cresting across his muzzle. “That’s cruel, Judith.”

 

“I learned from the best.” She replaced her own look of satisfaction with a faux innocence.

 

Nick had another comeback, was ready with that comeback, but his brain was busy catching up, and it stalled him. She had called him cute. Called his face cute. And that brought a dumb smile to his face that he was powerless to stop. The cute dress she was wearing only complimented the brilliance of her eyes and smile. Of course she looked great in a dress; she looked fantastic in anything.

 

Police uniform? ‘Oh yes, please cuff me and pat me down officer.’ Check.

 

Police Blues? ‘Something about how professional they are gets me hot under the collar.’ Check.

 

Work clothes when she drove five hours into the city to come find him? ‘God I’d give a limb to see you in that button down, or in one of mine, sans pants.’ Check.

 

And then he noticed the choker laced firmly around her neck.

 

Nick felt his mouth and throat go dry and his slacks become suddenly and noticeably uncomfortable in the groin. _Oh my God . . . Oh WOW . . . that certainly does something . . . pleasant. Karma, I rescind what I had just said earlier._

“You . . . look absolutely beautiful,” Nick muttered to her. Even through the tittering, Judy felt a warm blush hug her entire being. Her ears fell against her back. Whatever bravado she had been wearing proudly to tease the fox with evaporated. Left in its place was a female rabbit feeling someone so close to her paying a genuine and heartfelt compliment. And how happy she was to bask in his praise.

 

“You, uhm, you really think so?”

 

Nick answered with complete and honest confidence. “I know so.”

 

Judy was glad that the blush running through her ears was hidden with them behind her back. She couldn’t help the timid smile and kneading her fingers over her clutch.

 

“And you look pretty handsome yourself,” Judy complimented. And Nick absolutely did.

 

Judy couldn’t resist one more gentle prod at his expense. “Dressed up to do some ‘hunting’, huh?” She wagged her eyebrows at him.

 

Nick’s eyes went wide, and he began shaking his hands. “Okay. No, you know what? We’re going to clear that all up, right now. No mishaps. For the very few rom coms I’ve watched, since most are terrible, I know how out of paw these miscommunications can get.”

 

Judy’s smile only seemed to widen. “Alright, go ahead, _Casanova_.”

 

Nick cleared his throat, “Okay. Firstly, no I do not bring females here with the sole intention of sleeping with them, nor have I practiced the art of the pick up at this establishment. I just so happened to unexpectedly run into Mara here.”

 

“Mhmm.” Judy, thank God (Nick wasn’t counting on Karma herself seeing him through this night yet), didn’t seem too off-put or upset in any way about his conversation or what she had witnessed. “And who, may I ask, just was that caracal?”

 

Now, the full answer, the one Nick knew Judy wanted to know, caught in his throat.

 

“That . . . piece of work was Mara Brisbane. A perpetually up-to-no-good feline that gets a kick out of teasing and riling up any mammal she can find. Yours truly included.”

 

“So how do you know her?”

 

“Uhm . . . well, uh, she and I, oh Karma how do I put this, uhm . . .” _How on Earth do I tell her that what Mara and I had was purely a shallow, physical, pseudo relationship? Fuck buddies? Too crude. Bedmates? What are you, British? Hooking up on occasion? Too interchangeable and not well defined enough._

 

“Ya know, there’s really no polite way to say it . . . ” Nick started, rubbing his one arm and finding the floor particularly interesting. He risked a glance back up at Judy, whose face had suddenly gone serious.

 

“Nick, was she one of your old . . . ” Judy looked back and worth and whispered, “ _business_ contacts?” _God bless Judy to have the decorum to not publicly announce my presence nor state of business_ , Nick thought. _Also, bless her innocence. And also, she was right on that note, as well._

 

“Well, yes, I guess she did what you could call unofficial tech consulting.”

 

Judy’s brow furrowed. “Tech consulting?” she drew out.

 

“Yeah, you see, Mara’s good with electronics and computers. Like, far beyond good. Like, she can do all of that hacking crap you see on TV, but, in real life, with real results. I think she can personally relate to the goat from The Imitation Game and maybe even a little from Russell Crowe’s character from A Beautiful Mind.”

 

Nick smiled at hearing Judy titter at the small joke. “Gotcha. So, an old contact of yours.”

 

Nick nodded, and drummed his fingers together. “Yup.” He paused, and rocked on his heels, avoiding her eyes. Judy, having heard their entire conversation, was patiently waiting, with a smug smile no less, to hear the very necessary _rest_ of Mara’s connection to Nick.

 

“Annnnnnd, I want to preface this so that you hear it from me and not from someone else, she and I . . . may have – probably – definitely hooked up a few times throughout the years. Lonely mammals looking for someone to relate to, something to escape from reality for a little bit,” Nick tapered off at the end, again feeling an uncomfortable pull in his gut at the ugly admittance of the sophomoric and unbecoming relationship. While it likely wasn’t the moment that would spoil the whole night, Nick had a fair inkling in his mind that his reputation in Judy’s eyes had just been soured by his little reveal.

 

Dreading what he would see, he looked up to see an expectant bunny patiently waiting for more, for him to continue. “And . . . what?” she inquired. “You dated?” she asked in a calm and reserved tone.

 

His face pinched at the thought. “Oh God no,” Nick quickly waved his paws at that suggestion. “Just, you know, saw each other every here and there over the years. Not dating, no interest from either of us there. Just stress relief.” Nick paused, before pawing himself in the face, closing his eyes. “I cannot . . . believe . . . I just admitted to you that a past relationship of mine was ‘stress relief,’ ” he exhaled.

 

The sensation of her looping her arm around his and having them walk further into the restaurant was the last thing he was expecting. A sound of disgust, maybe. Perhaps painful and awkward silence. But not physical contact. Definitely not that. Nick looked down at Judy, the beautiful rabbit on his arm, and saw her smiling and lightly shaking her head.

 

“Dumb fox,” she said without any hint of malice or snide, “I lived in a compound with almost one hundred and twenty some sexually active siblings, cousins, and relatives before I left for the academy. There were more nights than I can recall where I’d see a half-dressed sibling run to the kitchen, slam two glasses of water like they were coming in from the desert, and run back to resume with whomever they had staying over.” Judy’s face pinched and she sighed and shuttered at some invisible memory. “And oh god, while we got some of the rooms soundproofed, we just couldn’t afford to get _all_ of them soundproofed. So many nights of no sleep because a bunch of other bunnies were doing anything _other_ than sleeping. Ughh,” Judy shuddered again.

 

“Soooo you’re not disappointed? Or anything like that?” Nick asked with an ounce of caution still in his voice.

 

“That you were doing what any healthy mammal enjoys?” Judy grinned and rolled her eyes at him. “Nick, c’mon! How on Earth could I judge you over something so normal? I just told you it was a healthy part of my upbringing, and I think it’s fine that you had a, or however many, relationships.”

 

And she was fine with it . . . Although there was the slightest tinge of jealousy in her heart at the realization that, yes, Nick Wilde had other lovers before her and that one happened to be at the restaurant where they would be having their own first date. That green-eyed feeling was quickly and effectively snubbed at her seeing how quickly Nick pulled his paw out from the caracal’s. At seeing his panicked and uncomfortable face at her advances. At how readily and quickly he distanced himself in every manner from the caracal. Ergo, Nick Wilde had no lingering interest in Mara Brisbane.

 

And that made Judy just a little happier, causing her to move a little closer to her date, causing her to wrap her arm a little more intimately against the warm body of the fox.

 

As they walked, Nick led her to his ‘arrangement’ that he had set up before either of them had arrived. They walked past the serving floor, past all of the tables, and up a flight of stairs to a nonexistent second story with a door wedged into the wall. He opened the door, and Judy let out a tiny, albeit instantly beyond charmed and thrilled, gasp of delight.

 

They arrived on a rooftop terrace that only had one table set up for dinner. The table itself bulls-eyed the available space that had been cleared just for them. All around the ledge were a variety of flowering plants and lit candles, their flames dancing and flickering like fireflies.

 

Nick was immediately thankful it looked as pleasant as it did, happy it turned out so nice. And of course Alphonse had placed an unopened bottle of red wine on their table, ready for them whenever they were. But, the real treat of their dinner arrangement was not the table, nor the rooftop terrace, nor the exclusion for their privacy.

 

It was the complete, direct, and unobscured view into the beating and colorful heart of Zootopia, a complete view into downtown, a living portrait into the jungle of steel, concrete, and neon lit high-rises that made up the famous skyline. Nick had to physically hold back the smile that wanted to wrap all the way around his head at seeing the delightful excitement bloom on Judy’s face, followed by her petite paws balling up in front of her.

 

His own paws in his front pockets, slowly strolling towards her like he had a design in mind, Nick asked, “When you look at the city, what do you see?”

 

Judy answered immediately. “I see millions of mammals trying to coexist, millions of triers who just want to be happy.” She turned to him, still smiling warmly enough to melt ice. “You?”

 

“I see a million different stories, a million different perspectives,” Nick answered. He wasn’t sure whose answer he liked better, because both fit the reality of their city. And there was something strangely comforting in that regard.

 

Nick walked back over to their table and began the purposeful and exact process of uncorking the wine. A cabernet sauvignon, seven years aged and its red color so deep it bordered black.

 

“So now I finally get to see why that caracal called you ‘Casanova’,” Judy said while she walked back to their table. Her face outwardly was blank, but Nick caught the playful spark behind her eyes.

 

“Har – har – har, go on, yuck it up and get it out of your little system,” Nick responded, feigning stern and uptight offense.

 

Judy giggled, and as quickly as she started, she stopped, a serious look and feel taking hold of her. She lightly began massaging one arm with the opposing paw. “You, uh, you do this for all the females you take out on dates?” she asked in a reserved voice.

 

“Nope,” he answered, “just the ones I know are worth it.”

 

Judy opened her mouth to say something back, but nothing came out. The words sunk in, and the bunny realized that maybe it was okay to not have anything to say right back. Nick didn’t seem to mind or be waiting on a response. She bit her lip and took a seat, her eyes seemingly trying to never leave Nick Wilde, who with a loud _POP!_ , uncorked their wine and set it on the table to breathe.

 

He sat down opposite of her, and Judy took the chance to drink him in without distraction. It was completely official; Nick Wilde looked handsome in anything. Including, in his own confident yet dorky way, those ugly-as-a-camel-in-commercial-porn Hawaiian shirts he was so fond of. But the casual (and dare she say elegant) suit he had on now played to all of his strengths. Carefree, confident, in control. All things Nick Wilde. All things she found irresistibly attractive about Nick Wilde.

 

“You think I’m worth it?” she reiterated.

 

Nick, to her surprise, shook his head. “Not ‘think’, Carrots, ‘know’. Those two terms are so very different, and I don’t want anything else tonight to be misconstrued or miscommunicated if I can help it.” He held up three fingers, giving her his Scout’s Honor. “As honest as I am handsome.”

 

_What a dork_ , she thought in admiration. “So that’s your policy for tonight, huh?” she asked as she leaned back in her chair. “Honesty?”

 

“And handsome. Don’t forget that. But Fluff? Did I just hear a stab at my character? Am I ever anything but honest with you?” He said it all with a shit-eating grin that dared her to come back at him, enticed her to return his volley.

 

Judy made a small show of brushing her chin and appearing deep in thought. “Omitting certain facts, like that a ‘spa’ is really a nudist club? Yes. But anything besides honest? I suppose not. They say honesty’s the best policy, after all.”

 

“I would be inclined to say that ‘they’ are quite wrong that honesty is the ‘best’ policy,” Nick corrected politely as he began pouring them both wine. His answer surprised her, and her body moved in accordance with someone who had just heard something off-putting.

 

“When is honesty not the best policy, then?”

 

“Being honest and all is certainly a good policy Carrots, but there’s never just one size fits all when it comes to the truth. Sometimes, it’s best that honesty takes a back seat.”

 

Judy leaned into the table, grabbed her glass, and took a sip of wine. Right out of the gate, she had an opportunity to get to know the real Nick a little better. The former con fox’s opinion of the hard truth. “Why do you think that?”

 

Nick followed suit, taking a sip of his own pour, swirling the wine around in the glass, nails drumming on the table and gaze indicative of being deep in thought. “Because Fluff, sometimes the truth is awful. Sometimes it’s very dangerous. Sometimes, it’s just better to never air out the truth, better to do anything else than speak the truth. Not all the time, I’d be a liar to say that truth certainly has its merit, buuuuuut being honest all of the time? That’s gotta be one tough way to live.”

 

They sat, just looking at each other for a moment and listening, but not really paying attention, to the constant din of the city around them. Each took a measured sip of their wine. Each was staring at the other, not saying anything, letting the other mammal form their thoughts. Judy went first.

 

“Would you ever lie to me, Nick Wilde?” Judy asked.

 

Nick did not respond immediately, but leaned into the table to look closer at his companion. He exhaled, shook his head gently, and said, “I don’t think I ever could, Judy.”

 

“Is that a lie?” she countered, half joking but also half serious.

 

He grinned and shook his head. “No. Would I ever pull a white lie or omit something? I’m sure, since every mammal on the face of the earth does that. But I know what you’re really asking. If it was ever something serious, something that needed addressing, no, Judy, I don’t think I could ever outright lie to you.”

 

“Kinda going against your previous words on how ‘honesty is not all it’s cracked up to be’, Slick.”

 

The fox shrugged, and sipped again. “Must be something about bunnies, I suppose. You bring the best out in me, maybe? Besides, omitting info works wonders in hustles. And you can never say you lied, per se.”

 

“Or just changing the conversation or segueing sideways into something else does the same wonders,” Judy held up her finger as if making a point, “now _those_ are ‘I am uncomfortable and want to escape the current situation’ Nick Wilde trademarks.”

 

“Hey, I was pretty decent in coming clean about Mara and I, was I not?” Judy grinned at seeing one of his ears flick in what could be described as mild annoyance.

 

“Yes you were, fox.” Judy took another sip of wine and smiled. “Yes you were. And Nick, for what honesty’s worth, you being so forthcoming about it means the world to me. So thank you.” She let those words sink in, and folded her lips in an attempt to hide the smile at seeing Nick process them. Wide-eyed first, then eyes to the table, moving back and forth, trying to fully discern and dissect what was just said to him. And then the smile. Sudden, genuine, and maybe a little surprised. Nick looked at her, raised his glass at her, and winked in response.

 

She mimicked him, taking another sip, and felt the beautifully carefree effects of alcohol beginning to flush her system. But an intrusive thought wedged its way into the forefront of her mind’s eye before she could let the alcohol have any further effect.

 

The thought was of her, sitting in the back of a squad car with Nick, after the ocelot Raymond Strauss had finished two viciously brutal and effective distractions in one of his many assassinations. The intrusive thought continued to detail the air stinking like hot and bitter blood, and the fox trying his best to completely pretend like Judy didn’t exist. Another thought of him trying to avoid as much of her as he could after that particular attack, at how short and clipped his sentences were, of the sudden and startling lack of camaraderie they had previously shared, and how they had only managed to get over that hump when their breakthrough in the case dawned on them. So much so, that it seemed it was only the closure of their case, the one that nearly left Judy dead, that was the sole driving force that mended their relationship.

 

They had never talked about it once that case wrapped up. By guilty admission, both had likely hoped that they could just move past it without further examination. Yet, again, both knew they sorely needed to discuss it, whether they wanted to or not.

 

Because whether he knew it or not, Nick had only ever avoided her like that once before. And once was enough to last Judy Hopps a lifetime.

 

_Like pulling splinters,_ Judy thought. _This will likely sting, but it has to happen. I am not going to let this sit and fester. Hopefully you’re going to be as honest with me as you’ve said, Nick._

 

Judy cleared her throat, set her glass down, knitted her fingers tightly together, leaned onto the table, and looked directly at Nick. Nick, for a mammal that liked to think he could read mammals, immediately read her right, and he did not like what he was reading in the slightest. A hard and unpleasant gear change in their evening was imminent.

 

“While we’re on the topic of honesty, we need to have an honest talk, Nick.”

 

Nick exhaled, and filled his glass with more wine; a little more than his first pour. “Like I said Carrots, honesty can be painful. And part of me is thinking that this ‘honest talk’ we’re about to have is going to be anything but pleasant.”

 

“It will be what we make it, Nick.” Judy sighed. The pleasantness of their date so far had vanished. This was definitely going to sting. And the words to hush it over, to apologize, say ‘lets just forget it and have a nice time’, almost escaped her lips. But, if there was something – anything – Judy Hopps wanted, she would work until she or the opposition broke to get it. And for better or for worse, she needed to hear his reasoning for her upcoming inquiry.

 

Nick slowly nodded, closing his eyes in a prolonged blink. “Alright. Shoot.”

 

Judy set her glass down. “Do you ever try to forget things you’ve seen? And I mean purposefully, like the thoughts come up and you wish to God that you had the ability to purge them from ever bothering you ever again.”

 

_Yes, all of the time_. “Why do you ask?” Whether or not his dodge was calculated or purely involuntary, Judy could not determine.

 

Judy didn’t shrug nor try to dodge the question fired back at her. “I’ll never forget the first time I saw another mammal’s blood. _A lot_ of their blood. Enough blood pooling around them that I knew they were either soon to be dead or were already dead and gone. I don’t think I could ever forget something like that, as much as I wish I could. I think it’s one of the instances that will always stick with me.” Judy picked up her glass and downed a mouthful, this time not so much for the taste.

 

Setting the glass back down on the table, she forced her eyes back onto Nick’s. She drew a deep breath. “Another time that I will never forget, nor fully forgive myself for, was the press conference.” Her hearing correctly picked up the subtle, small, yet sharp inhale from her partner across the table.

 

“You and I made up for my horrible mistake that day,” Judy affirmed. “But as long as I live, I will never forget your face - your hurt - when you confronted me about it.”

 

To her mild surprise, Nick interrupted her. “Judy? Is this really about that? If it is, I fully and completely forgave you back under that bridge. It’s just like you said. We made up.”

 

“I know, I know – it’s not about that exactly, but just bear with me for a moment,” Judy said. “Nick, after Raymond bombed the restaurant we were in with Ernest Walton, and when you went after him, and I found you – ”

 

Judy stopped talking, inhaled, and looked Nick right in the eyes. “Nick, what happened after the bombing? When Raymond got away from us?”

 

She watched as his eyes widened in realization, felt her stomach coil and churn threateningly at the possibilities of his answer.

 

He started off slowly. “You mean when you found me . . . in the street . . . with Shelley Yont?”

 

Judy didn’t feel herself nod. They sat in that terrible silence for a few moments. Nick seemed intent on holding a staring contest with her, as if waiting for some cue to proceed.

 

“You don’t remember what happened when you saw me, do you?” Nick asked her in a quiet tone. Judy felt her mouth go dry and could only work her jaw. She couldn’t even answer. She shook her head.

 

Nick sighed, and leaned back in his chair. “Oh.” A pause. “Yeah. I guess we need to have an honest talk about that, don’t we?”

 

In a small voice, Judy begged more than asked, “Please?”

 

Nick drummed his claws on the table. He wanted to say ‘no, I’m having too nice a time.’ He didn’t want to talk about that. About what that incident reminded him of. But, like her, he knew, deep down, that he had too. That they had too. If anything good was to ever come of them, it had to be addressed. Feeling the sick and sharp knife of anxiety begin sawing away in his stomach, Nick swallowed and answered, “Okay. But, you need to stick with me for a moment here for context of my own. That alright?” She nodded.

 

“Alright then,” Nick responded, and to no one’s surprise, he downed his whole glass of wine. To Judy’s subsequent surprise, he didn’t refill his glass, and set the empty goblet off to the side of the table. He folded his paws, interlacing his fingers, and began talking.

 

“As a predator, we too, never forget the first time we see someone else’s blood. I know that sounds like some anti-pred rhetoric, but it’s the truth. Blood . . . has that kind of impact. Any mammal in their right mind recalls their first. And my first was when I was eleven years old.

 

“It was at a basketball court off of Pack Street, walking around, sizing up the other predators, seeing if there were any opportunities for me to make a quick buck or earn a favor or two. That night, I earned neither. But, I did learn something, which at the time seemed fairly useless, but now seems to hold a world of relevance.

 

“Anyway, there were preds everywhere. No prey. A bunch of us playing a game of ball, many watching, some doing drugs, some drinking out of brown bags, you name it. Every uppity prey mammal’s worst societal nightmare in 90’s technicolor. So I guess you could call it predatorial premonition of knowing when shit’s about to hit the fan, but I think that every predator there felt it coming and got out of the basketball court before said shit hit said fan. Two male lions, not too old like Lionheart but each had enough years to have something of a mane around their necks, got into it. Suddenly and very quickly. One moment, they were playing ball with a few others, next moment it was just them – everyone else on the court suddenly took to the sidelines as if on cue – and then they just laid into each other. And I mean they absolutely came to blows.

 

“Next thing I know, there’s blood. A whole lot of blood, splattering all over the court ground. It was like those two were trying to peel each other’s faces off. You know how sharp pred’s claws are, and that was all they were using.” As if needing demonstration, Nick held up his own claws for Judy. He made careful note of her nose briefly twitching and the widening of her pupils as she stared at each individual claw. No doubt thinking of the last unfortunate circumstance with her and a predator’s claws, the one that left lifelong reminders on her neck.

 

But the intent of his demonstration was not malicious; both parties knew that. It was only necessary in going forward. Nick continued.

 

“I suppose it was a good thing that Karma just happened to put two patrolling cops right then and there. And just like that, the two lions got off each other, and with blood literally running off their faces, they lied to the officers about what had happened and if either would like to press charges. Neither lion accused the other of attacking the other. Both just said they incurred their injuries from a heated game of ball. The police called bullshit and demanded that someone tell them how all that blood got on the court and why both were bleeding so damn badly. Neither lion gave them an answer. In fact, no one fessed up, despite there being at least two dozen witnesses to the whole spectacle. Including yours truly.” Nick stopped at seeing Judy’s mouth slightly open in mild shock.

 

“You mean you didn’t go to the police and tell them what happened?” Judy asked.

 

“More like lied through my teeth and told them that I was just a young kit who didn’t see anything and didn’t even know why anyone would do such a thing. ‘Mother always rebuked violence’ and that whole bit. I didn’t want to be marked in any way as a snitch to all others watching.” Nick paused for a moment, now staring at the table. “Two bulls, kinda like the Chief, but not as big. Those were the officers that caught the tail end of the scrap and tried figuring out how to incarcerate anyone over it. Still remember what they said when they were done getting zilch out of me.”

 

Nick thought that he only repeated the words in his mind, unaware of his lips faintly ghosting out the words. Judy correctly identified ‘even the kits are natural born liars.’ Nick resumed talking.

 

“I guess I embodied the stereotype in full there. That night,” Nick continued, “was another stark lesson for me about this city. About mammals. About differences. It demonstrated the clear differences between preds and prey on what is acceptable. What is natural. All of the other preds at the court that night, from stoat to fox to hyena to lion, believed it to be just a natural way to do things. You had a beef with someone, when words didn’t cut it, out came the built-in weaponry. Prey, on the other hand, saw it as attempted murder because no civilized mammal would do something like that. No prey mammal is ever that violent. No sir, just the ones with claws and pointy teeth. Those officers certainly thought that.”

 

Nick leaned forward on the table, bringing his paws up to his chin. “My point being, mammals see what they want to see. Or sometimes, what they have been brought up to see. But, I think it’s just best that we all just try to accept the reality of the world, regardless of what we see. We, preds and prey, are different, and it is irresponsible and immature to believe otherwise. Remember what Captain Ashmore told us when we were closing in on Raymond?”

 

_Natural born killers,_ thought Judy. Nick noticed the recognition and took it. He poured himself another glass of wine before handing the bottle over to Judy, who after a moment, grabbed it and topped off (modestly) her own glass.

 

“What you saw in that street, after Raymond’s bombing and killing spree, was me, a predator - a fox - covered in blood and holding a bleeding out goat, barking and screaming at anyone to call 911. Most mammals were just looking back at me, trying to scream, pointing, seeing a fox, a predator with teeth, claws and all, holding a goat who was trying to hold her own neck shut. And failing.”

 

Something awful, something unknown, recoiled in Judy’s gut.

 

Nick took a deep breath. “When you came out from the alleyway . . . you saw just that.” Nick stopped, seemingly unable to complete the thought.

 

The answer clicked. But the answer was stuck in the dark, just out of reach from the revealing light of her mind’s eye. But she knew. She sensed it. Judy started shaking her head.

 

Nick regained his train and finished his thought. As he spoke, he grimaced, as if pulling out a splinter. “I’ve seen you look at me like that only once before.”

 

Panic. Dread. Confirmation. All started to crawl into her body and across her being. Her head shaking quickened. “No . . . No, c’mon Nick, please . . . ”

 

“The press conference,” he finished, ignoring her, forcing the truth out of his mouth, “right when I threatened to eat you. You gave me the exact same look at seeing me holding Shelley Yont. It was the same face. The same eyes. The same old fear, bottled deep down.”

 

Judy Hopps felt the city around her come to a violent stop. Felt the horrible well of guilt, shame, and regret from that awful day come rushing out from a dark and locked away corner of her mind. There it was. A repeat. Her nightmare revolving around a series of questions and biases. Around the rational and irrational fears of the greatest caliber.

 

The admission that despite her best efforts, despite so desperately wanting to change for herself, for him, for their city, she still carried such implicit and irrational beliefs. Beliefs that instantly redirected her thoughts that a fox was capable and willing to commit such violence. Beliefs that came out in the most honest mammals in the most honest moments. Like seeing a bleeding out mammal in the claws of a predator.

 

The tears began to drip off her lower eyelids. She wanted so badly to scream, to cry, but could barely force herself to breathe. What resulted was a rattling and choked breath saturated with falling tears.

 

Nick’s face immediately warped from melancholic to surprised then to panicked. He leaned over the table, muttering, “oh-oh-oh-oh . . . no-no-no c’mon, don’t cry.” Taking her chin delicately in one paw, Nick began using the knuckle on his other thumb to gently dab at the bases of her eyes, his fur soaking in and pulling her tears away.

 

“You bunnies,” Nick started in such a painfully gentle tone, and to Judy’s complete bewilderment, smiled at her as he attended to her tears, “you’re so emotional.”

 

“D-Don’t patronize me!” Judy tried for it to sound empowered and strong (things she wanted to feel but currently wasn’t) but it came out more pleading and desperate. “Nick, oh my god, how – how can you even look at me? After all that, I haven’t changed at all!”

 

“Because, one, as I have already told you, I have long ago and fully forgiven you for the press conference, Judy. Water long under the bridge. And two, I also hold no ill will towards you for the fiasco with Shelley Yont. Honestly, I mean it when I say that I don’t even have the right to be angry with you for giving me that look seeing Yont and myself in such a state. Who on earth would immediately think otherwise seeing a fox covered in blood holding a dying mammal? Had I been the one stumbling upon such a scene, running on nothing but survival instincts and adrenaline, I sure as shit would’ve thought the fox guilty.”

 

Nick continued to dab at her tears, and when her eyes momentarily dried, he cradled her cheek with one paw, finger smoothing over the fur on her face with slow reverence. “That’s a tough call to think otherwise, prey or predator, Carrots.” Finished clearing her eyes, Nick leaned back into his chair, that easy smile still persisting.

 

“Besides, you didn’t let me finish and tell what happened next. And judging by how confused you look, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you don’t recall that either. Not that I blame you in the slightest.”

 

“I didn’t taze you, did I?” Judy attempted humor through her choked words. Thankfully, it did get a small bark of a laugh from him.

 

“No, no you did not,” he smiled. “After a moment of staring, it was like a switch was flipped in you. All that fear seemed to vanish, and what was left was the face of the cop who oh so bravely faced Bellwether with me. You literally bolted right on over to me and started yelling at someone to call 911. I guess because you weren’t covered in blood they listened to you. You then called it in to the station yourself, because even in stressful scenarios you love to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, and then you placed those little paws right on Shelley Yont’s throat to try and stop the bleeding.” Nick stopped and let the words sit for a minute. Judy cleared needed it.

 

Judy worked her jaw to start formulating words, but nothing came out. She looked down at her own paws, as if expecting still wet and hot blood to cover them.

 

She shook her head. “I don’t – I don’t even recall washing any blood off . . . ”

 

Nick shrugged. “I mean, we both were operating on autopilot there. That was a lot to deal with in one afternoon, profession of choice be damned. I think you grabbed a shower once we got a moment back at the station. I also think once we were a little more collected, was when memory began to properly work again.”

 

Judy looked up from her paws to Nick. “Okay, but Nick, then why on Earth were you ignoring me after the fact? I mean, did you need a minute away from me, or what? I thought, immediately after it all happened, that I had committed strike three. That we had lost a part of our relationship. Or even our entire relationship, for that matter.”

 

Nick winced again, then considered her question, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah I did need a moment to myself. Because before introspection and all that jazz, I guess you could say I was . . . pouting.”

 

Now, Judy’s jaw dropped and the remaining tears miraculously stopped flowing at processing the unexpected last word in his answer. “I’m sorry. Did you just say ‘pouting’?”

 

“Yes I did,” Nick affirmed. “That whole ordeal was a cruel reminder of differences, and it hurt. It reminded me of a fear I thought I could bottle up and lock away somewhere safe. And I was wrong.” Nick looked up at Judy, and she almost started crying again. The same kind of pain she saw in him at their press conference. It was clear as the moon against a cloudless night.

 

Judy also caught the strained tonal shifts in Nick’s voice. The calm, collected hustler’s delivery of information had stopped. Replacing it was a more frantic, more emotional tone that so clearly conveyed Nick’s discomfort. His paws became more animated, his gaze shifted more rapidly, the words flowed quicker and quicker.

 

“Seeing your reaction to me in the street, brief and as justified as it was, it reminded me of what _I_ am, of what _you_ are, of what _we_ are. A predator and a prey mammal. It reminded me that _that_ is what a predator can do to a prey mammal, or to anyone.” Nick sighed dejectedly, and slouched a little into his chair. He did not look up at her, afraid of what he’d see. He wanted to slow down, to regain control, but the words were starting to become too slick with dread and worry. There was no hope of carefully letting them go.

 

“The whole thing just reminded me that one day you’d see it, that element that makes us different, too different to work anymore, and we’d fall right apart. That there’d be that defining moment where you fully realized ‘oh shit, he IS a fox. A fox with sharp teeth and claws that were once used to eat bunnies.’ I mean, Karma above, even Captain Ashmore said he and I are natural born killers, right from the womb. So it’s not like I’m trying to fool anyone in saying it.”

 

“And – and our last encounter with Strauss . . . ” Nick paused, now fighting back the unsettling urge to break, motioned to his own neck, claws to his throat. Judy’s own paw slowly moved up to her own, resting on the fabric of the choker. She jumped when he slammed both of his paws onto the table.

 

“And God Dammit!! Despite having claws, despite having the ability to attack, to defend myself, to defend you, another predator was able to do that to you! And the only thing I could do to make him stop was to show my belly, to let him show you that _that_ is all I could have done to save you. I couldn’t even use my teeth or claws to stop him!”

 

Judy now saw, in combination with the sadness, the anger, the humiliation, and the rage now mixing dangerously in Nick’s eyes. Watched as his fists balled and flexed open, claws somehow seeming more pronounced, more curved, and sharper than usual. After a few moments of seething silence, Nick began to regain his desired control. It was like watching the tension slowly leave a coiled spring.

 

“The point being, Judy, is that I realized that there will always be some element of me that can hurt you because I am a predator and you are a prey mammal. That realization _hurts,_ and Karma above forbid, if something like that ever happened, I could never forgive myself. And I am very, very scared that you will finally realize that one day and – ”

 

The next three words, and his honest delivery of them, broke her heart.

 

“ – and leave me.”

 

Nick deflated entirely into his chair. He felt exhausted. Embarrassed. A little angry at himself for letting himself get so damn emotional, for unpacking all of that shit onto Judy. He could’ve omitted certain things. Left pieces of himself locked away in a picture book, forgotten and hidden somewhere dark and safe. But nope, he had to go and throw all that insecurity right out for her to see on the first night they had together since the closure of their case.

 

_So much for making it a good time regardless_ , he thought sourly.

 

The loud and very sudden _THUMP_ startled Nick into looking up to see Judy Hopps now sitting on her knees on the tabletop in front of him. She had actually taken it upon herself to close the distance between them, table and cloth be damned, and she looked absolutely taken aback. Of course, not at her action, but likely at him. So Nick, not entirely sure how to proceed, looked back down to the remaining inches of table not currently occupied by her.

 

Nick felt something soft and warm grab onto his paws. He made the conscious choice not to look up at her.

 

“Nick?” he heard. “Is that what that was all about? You’re afraid that I’ll leave you because . . . of what? Because you’re a fox? Because you’re a predator?”

 

“Yeah,” he muttered, hopeful that she couldn’t see the sliver of tears starting to pool on his own eyelids, the ones he was fighting back with what limited strength the muscles in his face could provide. “Yeah, that about sums it all up, I guess.”

 

He felt her other paw cover his and start massaging the fingers, felt her own digits start to intertwine with his and delicately go over the claws. When he tried to pull away, afraid she’d inadvertently add another scar to her body, she pulled him back harder, with measured and stubborn force she was adept at concealing in her tiny body.

 

“Well,” Judy started tentatively, “for what honesty’s worth Nick, I have no intention of ever leaving your side. When I asked you to join the force and be my partner, I meant everything by it. Not under special circumstance, not because of what you are, but because of _who_ you are. Being a predator is no drawback in my mind, no detriment to the character of the mammal I know you are, despite what the world may think.”

 

He felt her lift his one paw up, lifted it right to her throat, and Nick swallowed when Judy pushed his paw against her neck, against the soft fabric of her choker and the even softer texture of her fur. Nick felt the warmth of her body radiate through his paw. Felt her pulse, fast as it naturally was for a bunny. Felt her breathing. Noted that unlike her pulse, it was not fast, not panicked. It was calm, controlled. Relaxed.

 

Not even fully of his own volition, Nick’s fingers began tracing slowly up her neck, cresting gently against her lower jaw. Judy just closed her eyes and hummed, a pleasant and reassuring sound that clearly conveyed the current state of her comfort.

 

“I want you to know, Nick, that when you are near me, when you speak to me, when you touch me, I’m not ever afraid that you’ll hurt me,” Judy told him. She took his paw from her neck and held it in front of her face.

 

Nick felt his mind stutter and skip at suddenly feeling something new come into contact with his paw. It took him a moment to realize it was lips, an exquisitely delicate, warm-as-sunlight, pair of lips. Hers - Judy’s - gently kissing his paw, his knuckles, the sides of his fingers, and the curves of his claws. Such a strongly feminine gesture meant to clearly convey warmth, security, happiness, trust.

 

Love.

 

While kissing, Judy inhaled him, inhaled the strong, invigorating scent of fox musk emitting from his palms. Savored the way the scent so completely filler her head and lungs. Now, Nick looked up to Judy, looked directly into the two pools of vibrant amethyst nestled in her head. Saw how serious she was, almost in spite of the calm and collected smile she beamed at him.

 

“Nick, I take you for you. Everything. I take you for being a fox. I take you for being a predator. I take you for everything you are, happily and willingly. The claws, the teeth, the fur, the false stereotypes, all of the many wonderful truths. I take the unknowns, the fears, the regrets, everything that you are, past, present, and future.”

 

“Why?” he interjected, his voice uncomfortably cautious. “Why would you trust me with all of that?”

 

“Because you did the exact same for me,” she answered. “You gave a biased rabbit a second chance, something I’m not sure many mammals have ever given you. I know, Nick, that you take me for me. You accept me for who I am, strengths, faults, and all. Right now, looking at you, I know in my heart of hearts that there is not one mammal else in the city or even the world that I’d want to be my partner. Every single thing you are, I will gladly take it all, if it means you will stay with me, that you will be with me as my partner.”

 

She said it all with such strong conviction. Meant every word, and he knew it, should have readily accepted it. But life as a fox and its multitude of cruel lessons bestowed onto him made him doubt otherwise. His caution, the instinct that kept him alive and sane against a world and even a family member who saw him as nothing worth trusting, screamed that it was all a lie. His past experiences, his memories of what he had done, warned him that he did not deserve her.

 

“You don’t really mean all that,” he lightly accused, the monstrous and ugly voice of his past screaming him to distrust her in his mind. “You can’t really mean all of that, Hopps.”

 

Her answer was immediate and so stark in its truthfulness it hurt. It suppressed the street-bred voice of doubt, the painful memories of the past, the instinct trying to grip onto and warp Nick’s intuition, into silence. “I do really mean all of it, Wilde.”

 

Judy let her answer sink in. Her honesty, so palpable, stuck in Nick’s mind, resonated like a harshly plucked guitar string. Nick held Judy’s gaze, hoping for the best yet waiting for the worst. He waited to see the faults, to see the cracks. Waited for her smile to break apart and for Judy to admit to him that no, she didn’t really mean all of it.

 

Waited for that cruel reminder of what fear can do, of what fear is capable of.

 

So Nick waited. And waited. And waited.

 

And Judy held his gaze, waiting patiently, her smile never faltering. Her fingers caressed his with soft and savoring affection. After a while, all he was left with was a bunny, one who had singlehandedly batted away his regrets, his faults, his own fear, sitting on top of their assigned dining table, holding his paws and smiling at him like he was, in fact, all worth it.

 

“You really mean all that?” is what Nick was barely able to make out. “Honestly?”

 

“As honest as I am confident,” the bunny smiled back. She held up three fingers in a Scout’s salute.

 

Judy then dropped his paw and took his muzzle with both of hers. She moved her head so that her adorable, small nose wiggled up right to his. “You know you love me,” she told him. Her coy smile of their old routine edged out a small smile on the fox. Familiar. Reassuring. Comfortable. Beautiful. Happy.

 

_Judy Hopps . . . what on Earth did I do to deserve you?_

 

“Do I know that?” Nick asked back, although through the familiar dialogue, he already knew the answer and happily responded, “Yes, yes I do.”

 

It had been a long time coming. From the moment a novice police officer met a veteran conman, when a rabbit met a fox, their relationship had only gained momentum, a building camaraderie that continued to grow, develop, and deepen between two mammals that at first had wanted nothing to do with the other. And now, after adversity, trials, and the fears of death, they wanted everything to do with each other. As friends, as lovers, as partners. As everything they could be.

 

With an admittedly little bit of help from the wine and their insistence, their will to try and be as open and honest and accepting of each other, they now knew where each other stood. And both were more than happy to realize that it was equal ground.

 

It had been a long time coming, it was perhaps a bit overdue, and both knew it.

 

So it was no real surprise to either of them when Judy, still holding his orange and cream-colored muzzle, leaned in a little more and planted her lips on Nick’s in a full-bodied kiss. And it was no further surprise that his paws went up to her face and cradled her as their kiss deepened against the night sky and the bright lights of their city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the wait. Still goin strong, despite slow updates, but still going strong. To those here thank you for sticking with me. Means an incredible amount and i thank you. And Happy Valentine's Day!


	4. You Taste Oh So Sweet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive thank you kindly! to my proofreader Drummer for all the help and insight he has provided for this chapter!!

The night watched them with revered attention. The very first kiss was perhaps the most seamless and least painful part of their date so far. A blissful, soft, comfortable, and full pressing of lips. The next moment, where one of them broke very briefly apart, enough for each to draw a small breath and to reengage in another kiss, was where the seamlessness stopped, where it all became a little trickier. Short snout versus long snout. Blunt, wide bunny teeth. Sharp, long fox canines. Tiny, twitching nose and larger, wet nose.

 

They gently bumped faces on the way into the second smooch, lips slipping past where they were intended to stay and teeth gently clacking into each other. A simple miscalculation of distance by amount of force crossed with anatomical differences. Trying everything absolutely meant making a few mishaps along the way.

 

Not that something so trivial like an anatomical difference would deter them in the slightest.

 

Genuine attraction and eagerness easily persisted past the miscalculation. Through a few more out-of-sync kisses, small giggling and the occasional ‘wait-wait, hold on a sec, let me try . . . ’, Nick and Judy slowly gained an admittedly awkward yet workable rhythm, practicing the best way their lips could press and gently grab onto each other. With each successful peck that landed, a greater and sharper spark of pleasure diffused through each of them.

 

Judy took a brief moment to inhale, the air sucked across her tongue and down her throat heavy with the palpable, musky scent of fox. His scent released a hair-prickling charge across the whole surface of her body, making her fingers and toes ball with excitement. Nick tasted absolutely . . . what? Exotic? Male? Even, dare she admit, what could only be described as predator-esque?

 

Yes. Yes. And (oh sweet cheese and crackers this is _amazing_ ) yes. Nick tasted so uniquely exotic, masculine with a strong underlying note of red wine, and so very predatorial. All mixed together in a very, very intoxicating and desired way. Even in their first foray into tasting each other, Judy tried not to squeal in excitement at feeling just how _sharp_ those fox canines were. The sensation of feeling her tongue sliding over his teeth made her head buzz. She absolutely wanted him to ever so lightly bite her. Somewhere sensitive. Anywhere intimate. Lips. Neck. Collarbone. Thighs. The rabbit’s speed of kissing quickened at the electrifying thought.

 

_Oh thank you God_ , Judy thought happily, _He is even better than I imagined!_

 

Nick could not believe it. Well, technically he could believe it, because he was currently locking lips with the bunny of his dreams and wanted to jump on top of the table with her, but also did NOT want to break the amazingly unique ‘practice’ they were engaged in to question her if this was all just a clichéd dream.

 

At risk of stopping the event, Nick opted to just continue with her in bliss.

 

Judy’s lips were so soft, gentle, warm, and curious. They were so, so soft; so wholly different than any other vixen, or any other mammal for that matter, that he had previously locked lips with. Nick delighted in her attention, the careful and inquisitive way her lips, her teeth, and her tongue pressed and explored around his own. The way her lips moved around his and grazed against his teeth. Hearing her inhale amorously at discovering just _how sharp_ her fox’s teeth were firsthand. Hearing, and feeling across their lips, her little moans as each peck became more intimate, more passionate, more demanding. How their tongues pressed, pushed, pulled, and caressed each other in curious exploration.

 

And he’d be a liar if he wasn’t as curious as she was and wasn’t engaging in his own exploration of a certain bunny’s anatomical differences. As their faces gently collided in eager repetition, he could feel her tiny button of a nose wiggling in excitement against his own. Nick thought it would be at least a little strange to sense a dry nose rubbing up against his own, but he was thrilled to find hers was soft as velvet, twitching against his in stubborn reflex.

 

And it only stroked his ego, just a little bit, to feel Judy running her paws up and down his muzzle, fingers drumming against the sides of his jaw, his whiskers sending hard pings of sensory detection each time her fingers and palms passed over them. Her desire to make the breaks in their kissing as brief as possible, to keep herself physically engaged with him, just added fuel to the growing fire.

 

And her taste. Her. Taste . . .

 

_Well, that’s . . . only a little surprising_ , he thought as his tongue greedily smoothed over hers, _She actually tastes . . . good. Really, really good. Oh God . . . she tastes so sweet, even delicious. Like delicious in the ‘I don’t want to actually eat her kind of way’ good. Might be some weird ‘prey tastes like tasty prey’ holdover kinda thing._

 

_Not that I mind that at all._

 

The speed and accuracy of their practice increased. They were becoming more engaged, more practiced in their differences, now easily correcting for one another. Between the next kiss, Nick inhaled, the air around Judy’s face quickly and gently pulling across her fur, her mouth, her chin (which smelled really, really strongly of female bunny for some reason unknown to him) and into his nose. The fragrance itself, so wholly of Judy and of rabbit, sent a strong jolt down through his chest and into his groin. It almost – _almost_ – elicited a small growl, an indicator of growing sexual tension and frustration. His paws went up to her sides, feeling down the slimming dress she had picked for tonight, his fingers running down the toned muscle on her frame. With every passing moment, the urge – his hunger – to explore her further pressed more and more into his head, his paws, his torso, his sheath, begging him to rip his clothes off and shred the useless and infuriating fabric hiding her body from him.

 

And while unconfirmed to him, Judy was thinking along very similar lines. The thought of eating any more food or drinking any more wine seemed completely and wholly uninteresting at the moment. What was completely holding her interest was the increasing pressure and building heat at the apex of her legs, an increasingly irritating itch to remove the constraint of her underwear and a desire to willfully let a certain fox explore every inch of her.

 

They were becoming so enraptured in their practice of one another they did not register the mammal approaching them. While later they would recall hearing the door to the terrace open, neither was really paying attention to that little detail of their evening, nor wanted to care about said minuscule details.

 

“Excuse me, madam,” the waiter, the pig named Alphonse, said, “while I am glad that you and Mr. Wilde are enjoying yourselves this evening, I must ask that you kindly stop using our table as a chair and use both pieces of furniture as intended.” Alphonse was smiling at them in a grimaced, painfully forced, and barely maintained fashion. What Alphonse actually wanted to say fell along the lines of ‘get the fuck off that $700 table before it tips and cracks!’ But, management strongly frowned upon yelling and cursing at customers, not surprisingly, so the pig refrained.

 

“Oh! Sorry, sorry, of course,” Judy apologized as she quickly backed off the table and frantically worked her way back to her seat. Nick almost whimpered as she left his head still extended over the table, his paws frozen in place where they had just begun to feel her voluptuous body. Nick exhaled, trying to bite back the disappointed frown, his ears folding back flat along his head.

 

“And, it would seem that you both will, indeed, be needing another pour,” Alphonse nodded at the two empty cups and singular empty wine bottle. “Thankfully, I came prepared.”

 

The waiter summoned another bottle of red. Both the fox and bunny read the presented brand and following title. Judy’s face went blank, instantly unsure of how to proceed and looking to Nick for the appropriate reaction. What she saw was a smile, a genuine smile with snorts of laughter coming from his nose.

 

“Heh, you know, that’s actually pretty funny,” Nick mused through squinted eyes.

 

The label read: _Carnivore. Cabernet Sauvignon. 2007. A red wine with teeth._

 

On the bottle was a dark red label presenting a white print of an open skull, the almost violent details of some predator’s cranium, jaws, and teeth predominantly displayed. The exact species was unrecognizable, but it was something with forward facing eyes and teeth designed for tearing into other mammals.

 

“I’m . . . sorry? Did I miss something?” Alphonse asked, looking between a very reserved and unsure rabbit and a fox that clearly was in on some unspoken joke.

 

“Nope, you didn’t miss much of anything,” Nick said, taking the bottle and beginning to uncork it. “Just thinking to myself that Karma has such a funny way of showing her humor.”

 

“Karma? Humor?” Alphonse asked, looking at the wine bottle and the label. “Carnivore . . . ?”

 

“Long story,” Judy breathed out, the disappointment and frustration at their interruption starting to build now that she was out of the ‘hot seat’ about rule breaking.

 

Alphonse gave up on any hopes of an explanation.

 

“And I will be back up in a few minutes with some entrées for you and your date to sample, Mr. Wilde,” Alphonse excused himself, heading back to the rooftop door.

 

Nick turned and looked at Judy. Each just held the stare for a moment. Under any other circumstances, they both would have launched back at each other.

 

The serious-as-a-heart-attack discussion they just had, though, was the clause for their exception.

 

Both slumped into their chairs and rested their heads against the backs of the seats. Each began giggling at their current situation and mutual reaction.

 

“Holy Christ,” Nick breathed, “I feel – ” he searched for the word. “Tired? Maybe? Like a little exhausted, but not physically tired? I’m still wide awake, mind you. No way I want to pack this night in yet.”

 

“Maybe you mean emotionally spent from that little ‘come to Jesus’ meeting we had before the kissing,” Judy helped.

 

Nick grinned and pointed at her in affirmation. “Yup, that’s gotta be it. Wow, never thought I’d be going on _that_ particular emotional rollercoaster. At least, not under desirable circumstances and not on the verge of a total breakdown.”

 

“Yeah, sorry that it turned out to be one hell of a ride, but we really, really needed to weather it,” Judy half-apologized, half-stated through a small smile.

 

Nick just smiled back. “No, you’re right. I – We – really needed that. And I am so thankful you nudged me to it, Judy,” he said, pausing for a moment before adding, “and nudged yourself onto the table, and nudged my head into those little paws and into that incredible bout of kissing. Plenty thankful for that too, because wow – I mean _just WOW_ – I have been itching for that for _sooo long_.” The ‘sooo long’ came out in a small moan, like finally getting to exhale a held breath.

 

Judy’s eyes went wide and she rapidly nodded her head in agreement. “OHH yeah-yeah-yeah, absolutely. That was, uhm, that was so _damn great_!” Nick’s ears perked up, as did one eyebrow. Judy’s ears gently flopped against the back of her head to hide the prickling warmth running up and through them.

 

“I, uhm, I have also been really – _really_ – looking forward to finally getting to kiss you, too” she admitted. To top the ever growing list of beyond adorably cute things Judy Hopps did that made his heart swell, the little bashful smile added on to the end of that admission made Nick want to clap his hands in delight.

 

“Was I worth the wait?” he asked her in a coy tone.

 

Judy’s eyes lit up and she gave him a giddy smile and nodded before asking, “Not too awkward kissing a bunny, was it?” Her small paws worked over each other as she asked.

 

“One of the most enjoyable experiences in recent memory,” Nick affirmed. “Oh, and, ya know, getting to go on a date with you,” he added, “That’s also pretty high up on the list as well.”

 

“Kissing and dating a prey mammal . . . Nicholas Wilde,” Judy started in a mock shocked tone, “are you telling me that tonight was the night you finally realized just how attracted you are to a bunny?”

 

“Ohhhhohoho . . . no,” he waved his finger at her, “No, I’ve known that for quite a bit, now. Began noticing right before I joined you on the force.” Nick poured them both new glasses and briefly admired his own for a moment before stating, “Not to come off as too chauvinistic so that I can’t recoup all of my losses, but I hope you were never too put off when I started, uhm, ‘noticing’.”

 

Judy completely knew about him ‘noticing’. She could freely recall several instances of the fox doing so, catching Nick sneaking glances at her butt, purposefully pretending to have some reason to walk right behind her or to hang back for just a moment to ‘admire’. She was also willing to bet that at one point, he had knocked over a pen near her solely for the purpose of watching her bend over to get it. Through it all, she was actually quite flattered and a little thrilled to let him look, not at all having felt violated or creeped out by what he no doubt thought of as ‘subtle admiration’. Judy even had her own personal witness to confirm her suspicions; the ZPD’s medical examiner was kind enough to inform Judy that her partner seemed very interested in repeatedly examining her tail.

 

Oh, she was also just that much more exhilarated with his admission that yes, Nick Wilde had sneaked plenty of longing looks at her rear.

 

“I definitely didn’t mind the attention, and still don’t,” Judy said in a quiet and controlled voice. “You’ve certainly been easy on the eyes yourself, Slick.” And he absolutely was. His training at the academy allowed for a healthy amount of lean muscle to graph all over his body. One could practically bounce a quarter off anywhere on him. Judy really wanted to put that saying to the test, particularly on his butt.

 

“Did I just hear Judy Hopps call me easy on the eyes? Where is my recording carrot pen when I need it?” he asked through a grin, patting down his pockets. “I just heard Judy Hopps finally tell me what I already know and I did not have the foresight to bring my pen. How on Earth will I ever be able to hear those sweet words again?”

 

She rolled her eyes and said, “You could always ask, dumb fox. I’ve got insider information saying that one Judith Laverne Hopps will probably tell you what your starved ego so desperately wants to hear.”

 

Nick mocked clapping his paws together and gave her a big, open mouth smile.

 

She rolled her eyes again, feeling her own smile creep across her face. “Nicholas Wilde, you are exceptionally handsome and are oh so easy on the eyes.”

 

Nick pretended to fan himself, closing his eyes, basking as obnoxiously as possible in the praise. “Like bathing in the warm light of the sun,” he cooed.

 

“Okay, we are SO going to have to set a limit to the amount of praise you are allowed to receive in one day if that is the reaction I can expect each time I compliment you,” she chided him.

 

“You’re telling me that you will willingly compliment me at least once a day?!”

 

“Oh my God.” Judy honestly couldn’t tell if he was being serious, but his (maybe purposefully) corny and blissful attitude was both endearing and groan-inducing. In a humorously wonderful way.

 

Alphonse returned to them, carrying a picnic basket and what looked like a large cast iron bowl. He explained as he set up their dinner in front of them, centermost on the table and possibly placed there so that neither would be tempted to crawl back on top of it.

 

“As per Fraise’s tradition, our guests are encouraged to participate in their own food preparation.” Judy ohh’d and ahh’d at seeing Alphonse quickly and effortlessly assemble a small bowl filled with charcoal briquettes and the metal rack that sat on its rim. With a zippo, Alphonse lit one briquette, the low flames slowly spreading over the rest.

 

“And also per our establishment’s tradition, our entrees are all fruit based.” Alphonse set down a small bowl full of ripe and healthy fruit. Judy noted peaches, pineapples, strawberries, plums, and nectarines. The pig then handed each mammal three wooden skewers and placed a small pot over a third of the grill. He reached into his pocket and summoned a dark brown rectangle, snapping it into pieces and dropping said pieces into the pot.

 

“Chocolate, sixty percent cocoa with caramel pieces and Fleur de Sel sea salt flakes. With these briquettes, expect it to be melted within fifteen minutes. Remove and place on the table after fifteen so that the chocolate does not burn.” Lastly, Alphonse pulled out another bowl that held a raw, golden board of honeycomb, dripping liquid gold.

 

Their dinner, completed and at their disposal, was grilled or cold fruit with the option of drizzling chocolate or honey. Dessert and dinner in one. With more red wine.

 

_Well, looks like that’s an easy A+ for ‘greatest first date ever’,_ Nick thought smugly to himself at seeing Judy’s giddy smile and wonder-filled eyes at their dinner. They had pulled the proverbial splinter without any damage, and his locale pick for their first date, and for what was surely the beginning of their new relationship, was all aces.

 

Judy looked up to Nick. “Alright. I’ll give it to you. A view, dinner, and a show. Never had a date like this, Slick. Anything else up your sleeve?”

 

“Yes, I actually hired a band of mice wearing tiny sombreros to come and serenade us while we grilled fruit and drizzled chocolate into each other’s mouths.”

 

Her mouth made a perfect O. “You didn’t.”

 

“Yeah, you’re right. I really didn’t. Thought about paying Finnick to do it buttttt you know how proud fennec foxes can be. Last thing I need is to insult his height or size with an oversized sombrero.”

 

Judy’s fists balled and she let out a small squeal Nick recognized was reserved for things she found to be adorable. “Ohhhh That would be soo cute!! Those massive ears poking out from under a giant sombrero!”

 

“Hmmmm again, remember how you feel about the ‘C’ word? I would strongly refrain from calling Finnick that. Fennec foxes are like bunnies when it comes to the ‘C’ word. Only difference is that they have sharp teeth and claws to reinforce how much they hate being called that. Speaking of the ‘C’ word . . . ” Nick leaned into the table, popping one chunk of pineapple into his open mouth.

 

Judy raised her eyebrows at him. “Yes . . . ?”

 

Nick motioned out to her with both paws, face holding back an avalanche of words, as if trying to make her current state that much more obvious.

 

She had already given him enough ribbing (well, maybe not enough) so far, so she took him up on it. “Was that your segue into asking me if you can call me cute?”

 

“Oh my God yessss please.”

 

She folded her arms in protest, remaining quiet with a smug grin.

 

“Ah c’mon! We just made out on the first date! You said I look nice! That this fox has a handsome face! That I was worth kissing! If it makes the deal any sweeter, I will let you make one fox related pun a day. No offense will be taken, on my oath!”

 

Judy relented. “I will need a reason for your request on file, Officer Wilde. That privilege isn’t just handed out to any mammal that isn’t a bunny.”

 

“Okay, there are many things – so many things – but to give you one and only one tonight – tit for tat – whenever you are concentrating or are doing anything remotely new, exciting, or whatever, your nose twitches like crazy. For instance, I felt it wiggling against mine when we kissed, and I swear I almost burst out laughing because it WAS THE CUTEST.”

 

Judy already knew she wouldn’t be mad if and when Nick decided that he could call her cute. At this point, even long before this point, the fox would have been able to call her cute without serious repercussion. He just hadn’t been aware, or brave enough, to call it like he saw it. At this point, she knew that when the fox would call her that dreaded derogatory adjective, he truly meant it in the most sincere and endearing way possible.

 

Secretly, she was thrilled to bestow the privilege upon him. “You, Nick Wilde, may indeed call I, Judy Hopps, cute. But only once a day. For starters. Can’t have you abusing the hell out of that privilege too soon.”

 

“Why thank you! Boy, we are just blazing all sorts of new trails tonight, aren’t we?” Nick teased, “I get to call you a word that has surely landed perps with a few extra bruises upon takedown. Now what would it take for me to call you cute more than once a day?”

 

Judy thought for a moment while placing a row of pineapple and strawberries on a skewer and over their personal grille. “I know. You can explain why I woke up to you licking the back of my head the night after we visited The Bar.”

 

Nick’s pupils thinned and he winced. “Haaaa. Ha. Ha,” he choked out, rubbing down the fur that had stood on end at the back of his head. Nick was immediately thankful for red and orange-colored fur. “Oh wow, you . . . actually remember that, huh?”

 

“I literally woke up because you were smoothing over the fur on my head with your tongue. Of course I remember that.”

 

“Yeah, not one of my better moments. It was . . . uh, a little creepy, and uncalled for, wasn’t it? Sorry.”

 

Judy looked taken aback by his apology. “I wasn’t coming at it from the angle of it being creepy, Nick.”

 

One eyebrow went up. “You’re not just saying that to preserve my mighty ego, are you?”

 

Judy didn’t have to think on her answer. To her newfound joy, this entire night she found herself amazingly sure of what she thought of and wanted from Nick Wilde. “Nope. I mean, c’mon Nick. We’ve known each other for over what? Two years now? Before all this, I knew that you were my best friend and one of the mammals I trusted more than anyone else. You were and still are one of the closest mammals to me in my entire life. To make the jump from hugging to cuddling to . . . you know, ‘tasting’ the top of my head, wasn’t that far out of the realm of possibilities for me.”

 

Judy popped another piece of grilled fruit in her mouth. “I mean, you know, after getting back from that night visiting that creepy little vampire bat, you tried to get naked in my apartment,” she said with a grin that only conveyed how pleasing the memory must have been.

 

Considering that he only remembered waking up in her bed after that night, Nick was mildly surprised at the fact imparted. “Oh Jesus, this just keeps getting better and better . . . Was I drunk and trying to impress you?”

 

This elicited a small laugh from the rabbit, which for Nick was another reassuring sign that he hadn’t made a total ass out of himself that night. “No, you were just so tired and drunk that I’m sure the only thing on your mind was getting your clothes off and going to bed.”

 

“Well, that’s a relief to hear,” Nick conceded, flipping over a spit of roasting plums.

 

“So,” Judy pressed, “why the head licking? And don’t you try to sell me on it was just you trying to gross me out like giving me some sort of new age wet-willy.”

 

Nick shrugged and smiled. “Well, in the spirit of being honest and not to sound too sappy, but I guess it was really like a comfort thing. I just felt . . . really at peace and in a safe place and very comfortable with you tucked into me, and I guess I just happened to express it that way. Felt like the right thing to do. Which I know, it sounds like I belong at the Mystic Spring Oasis spouting that kind of touchy-feely omnipresent inner oneness stuff.”

 

“No, it doesn’t” Judy gently chided him through a warm smile, “I think it’s really sweet. And it certainly makes me feel – ” Judy practically muttered ‘special’, a happy and mildly embarrassed confession that made her face heat up.

 

Her honest admission, and lack of taking the clear advantage to rail on him, was one more tally on the ‘why Judy Hopps is the best’ running board in Nick’s mind. “You certainly are special. Thanks for not busting my balls too hard on the whole ‘how many licks does it take to get to the center of Judy’s head’ thing.”

 

“Like I said. Just surprised me, that’s all. I certainly didn’t mind it,” Judy now insinuated with a wink and another sip of wine. “Felt . . . nice.”

 

Nick held the eye contact with Judy. Noted the lively spark of playfulness in her eyes. Noted the sultry smile resting on those lips. Noted how absolutely gorgeous a slim, female rabbit looked in a black choker. Noted what a turn-on it was for her to be staring down a fox without batting an eyelash.

 

Nick wondered what it would be like to get her on the opposing end of that confidence, to get her flustered and stumbling over her words.

 

“How opposed would you be if I licked the top of your head again?” Nick tested.

 

Judy shrugged and replied, “ It’s not the top of my head I’d want you to lick.” The moment the words left her mouth, the realization of what she just said aloud registered. Judy’s eyes went wide, and Nick watched with surprised delight at seeing the insides of her ears darken. Her paws flew to her mouth for only a moment before the cover-up came fumbling out of her mouth.

 

“OH WOW, holy cow I am going to slow down on my wine drinking because I was sure I only thought that and not said it out loud,” Judy quickly exclaimed, trying to smooth back her seemingly spring-supported ears.

 

In the midst of trying to maintain the aura of confidence she had happened to build over the course of their date thus far, Judy looked up to Nick and stopped trying to smooth her ears back. In fact, she simply froze.

 

Nick Wilde was staring at her in a way that could only be described as purely predatorial. His head did not move, his eyes did not once leave hers, his nostrils were gently flaring, and one paw was drumming all clawed digits against the tabletop.

 

“I will keep that in mind, rabbit,” he purred. Judy actually let out a small squeak of acknowledgement at hearing the serious and darker than normal voice he had just addressed her in.

 

And then Nick Wilde sat up and smiled, the predatorial air vanishing from him with the ease of a mist evaporating, as he quickly changed gears. Unbeknownst to her, he did so completely just to keep her on her toes, to show the rabbit how crafty a fox could be.

 

“Any other important life topics we should cover tonight, Carrots?” he asked in a purposefully chipper tone, breaking off a chunk of honeycomb and popping it into a mouth filled with fruit and teeth.

 

Judy shook her head, trying to catch up to the change in pace Nick had just set for them. In her slightly dazed state, due to the sheer attraction starting to weigh on all sorts of sensitive parts on her body and the tipsy effects of the Cabernet, she summoned a question out from the back of her mind. One she had actually been meaning to pick the fox’s brain about.

 

“Yes, actually! Uhm, wow, that also came out a little louder than I thought it would,” Judy giggled, “So, there’s been something bugging me from our last case that I just can’t seem to wrap my head around.”

 

Nick’s face pinched into concern. “As in, a detail we need to review at the station?”

 

“No-no-no, I really just mean for curiosity’s sake,” Judy quickly clarified. “So, remember Matthew Feldman?”

 

“Zebra. Male. Murdered in a shady hotel room by Raymond Strauss under the pretense that the ocelot was there to fuck him, not run a knife through his skull. Strauss’ third victim, if I remember right.”

 

“Yes, uhm, well,” Judy trailed off, face grimacing, “I’m not really sure how to ask this since it makes light of his circumstance – and the fact that we found him dead – but – ”

 

“Humor makes survivors of us all, Fluff. I’m ninety-nine percent sure I won’t be offended by whatever question you have loaded for me.”

 

Judy ate another piece of grilled plum and took another sip of wine before asking her question. “How on Earth did Feldman have sex with those cats?!”

 

Nick choked on the piece of strawberry halfway down his throat, taking a moment to clear the obstacle before asking for clarification.

 

“I’m sorry? Did – did you just ask me a sex logistics question? That’s your big, ‘we need to talk about this’ topic?! Were you saving that question for our date??”

 

“Yes! And yes, definitely worked up the courage to ask that – amongst other things – with the help of the wine!” Judy exclaimed.

 

Nick cocked his head to the side with a genuinely quizzical look. “Why on Earth do you want to know about that?”

 

“Well, aren’t you curious about it?!”

 

A pause in Nick’s response. “Well, I mean, yeah, it’s always fun hearing about other’s high-rise juggling acts in the bedroom. Or wherever, really. I’m not one to judge.”

 

Now Judy smiled at him, eyes wide and egging him on to pursue the train of thought with her. Nick nodded and started.

 

“Okay. So, to be honest, I’m not sure since Feldman’s size would clearly be a factor that needed special planning,” he began. “There are plenty of ways to get off, and I bet that’s where Feldman got his kicks, but I doubt what turned his crank was your standard ‘male part goes into other male part’ kind of affair.”

 

“What do you think got him?” Judy practically whispered, now fully engrossed in figuring out the entirety of a dead mammal’s sexual history.

 

Nick shrugged. “Being gay notwithstanding, I’d take a stab that Feldman’s real itch was all about the sharp parts. His preference for feline male prostitutes.”

 

Judy’s smile vanished. She heard his answer, but her mind honed in on one part of great interest. “The – ‘sharp parts’?”

 

Nick’s smile widened to reveal a grin full of very sharp teeth. The fox leaned over his end of the table while drumming his claws along its surface, audible clicks with each staccato sound of contact.

 

“Yeah, I’d bet he loved feeling claws against skin, dividing what little fur he had on his body. Probably enjoyed a bite here and there. Some mammals revel in it, having a mammal from the opposing end of the food chain come onto them. Take control. Bite, scratch, growl. A rush of adrenaline on top of the lust.”

 

Nick took a pause and bit down into a cold nectarine. Juice flowed out from the sides of his muzzle, a single drop running down the cream-colored fur around his lips. “You wouldn’t happen to understand that particular interest, would you Carrots?”

 

Judy’s response was stunned silence and a thorough blush that blotted across the insides of both ears. She began chewing on her bottom lip, fixated on the black claws of her partner. Nick made no mention of it, and made sure to continue drumming, to continue letting her look.

 

“You got to ask me when my ‘attraction’ started to turn to bunnies, I think it’s only fair that I get to ask the same question about your attraction to a fox, Fluff,” Nick said, being sure to slice apart a strawberry into fourths not using the provided knife, but his claws. It was a delight watching Judy, who was awestruck and something more inquisitive, be so captivated in the way that his body’s natural weaponry so easily parted the fruit. The way the red juice ran down his claw and pooled into a drip from the claw tips.

 

“Uhhhm,” Judy tried saying while still attempting to concentrate on Nick’s display of what a predator could do to unassuming fruit, “well, I guess to be completely honest, it mayyyyy have started when we tricked Bellwether?” Judy’s voice trailed up and off, waiting to see what Nick’s reaction would be to the fact that her sexual awakening towards foxes had happened when they were in a life-or-death situation.

 

Nick’s pupils thinned. The small smile he gave her, filled with sharp white wedges of teeth, told her that he was as okay with it as she was. “So, that wasn’t just coincidence when I happened to inhale above you . . . thought your body was giving away some pretty indicating signals when we were roleplaying there.”

 

“Yeahhh it’s kinda hard to put into words just how sexy that was, seeing you like that,” Judy admitted, nervously smiling and biting her lip. “Like, wow, that growling and the look in your eyes, Nick. And the teeth. And the claws . . . Can’t say any buck has ever really tripped my trigger like that before.”

 

Nick tried to suppress the welling sense of pride at hearing those words.

 

And then the scent hit him, in sparing whiffs from the air breezing across the terrace. Hot, heavy, and intoxicating to the degree that by instinctual reflex alone, he almost growled. Across the table, he could clearly smell Judy’s excitement at her recalling of favorable events. It sent a strong muscular pulling sensation across his stomach and into his sheath, his genitals instantly becoming more sensitive to the painful constraints of his pants. But with the wind gently moving the air around them, the next moment the scent vanished, leaving a fading profile in his head that the fox was determined to regain, one way or another.

 

_And this is just from across the table_ , Nick thought, _with the wind keeping it away from me. Karma, you tease._

 

Nick focused back onto his date, who was just watching him, perhaps knowing what he was doing, perhaps not. Regardless, considering the nervous smile, how she kept working her paws over, and the fresh scent of her arousal still burned into his mind, Nick decided to be a little more direct in his next question.

 

“How would you feel if I undressed you with these claws?” he asked her in a quiet voice.

 

Judy’s fists clenched and her response was in a strangled whisper. “Undressed? With claws? As in . . . tearing the clothes off my body?”

 

“Snip – snip,” Nick made the ‘come hither’ motioned with two clawed digits. “If it’s a favorite, we will gently remove it. Or, I will turn that dress to ribbons should you just ask.”

 

“OH WOW YES that would be pretty great holy cow,” Judy began explaining, feeling her knees go weak and immediately noticing the heightened state of her current arousal spiking through the roof.

 

“Although I will request that I am a fan of leaving that choker on,” Nick added. “You wear it really well. And I’d bet it would look even better with nothing else on.”

 

The fox knew their dinner was over. It was well about time that they left. The manic smile Judy was wearing, coupled with her balled fists and the occasional whiff of her excitement when the wind allowed it, signaled that she was very – _very_ – ready to leave with her date as well.

 

Nick, just for a few moments, pretended to still be interested in the grill. “You’re not still hungry, are you? We can certainly stay for – ”

 

Her response was instant. “No! Nooo. Nope. Fine. Full. Of food and wine.”

 

Nick couldn’t resist one more oblivious, gentle prod. “You ready to go, Judy?”

 

Again, Judy knew her response without a second’s hesitation. “ _Yes_. Yes Please. So ready. _Sooo ready._ You’re good, right??”

 

“Without a doubt,” Nick answered, quickly hopping off his chair and fishing in his jacket pocket for the prewritten check, the even sum agreed upon for his private evening.

 

As they sped walked to the door that would take them back into the restaurant and back out into the city, Judy tugged on his hand, bringing both of them to a stop.

 

“So, uhm, this is still the boldness of the wine talking – mostly – but would you be okay with, oh I don’t know,” Judy rocked on her heels and pointed across her head, as if painting a broad smile from the end of one cheek across her face to the other.

 

Nick was picking up on what she was putting down, but wanted her to admit to it. “You asking me to rub off on you, Ms. Hopps?” Nick asked with a grin.

 

Judy smiled back. “I have no problem announcing to everyone that I’m taken. I mean, I don’t mean to speak for you! If that’s like too much or too soon or it means a completely different thing for foxes than it does for rabbits I mean – ”

 

Judy was caught off guard by a pair of russet paws taking her head and derailing her train of thought. Instantly, she inhaled the incredibly strong and masculine scent of fox. Her knees went weak, and a craving deep within her body reverberated in one harsh pluck. She brought her knees together, rubbing the glowing sensation along.

 

_Oh . . . that’s right,_ Judy thought in a mild daze, taking a deep breath through her nose, _foxes have scent glands in their palms. Lucky me._

 

Nick smoothed his open palms against the very edges of Judy’s face and gently brought his paws down the sides of her neck. Judy noticed the firm and concentrated look in his eyes. The way he held her stare without flinching. The way his nose occasionally flared.

 

Cupping the back of her head, he closed the already minimal distance between them and started pushing the sides of his mouth against as much of her face as he could. If he felt he missed a particular spot or just wasn’t satisfied with the current covering, Nick made another pass alongside her face. All the while, Judy closed her eyes, smiled, and relished in the deeply intimate moment, inhaling and exhaling when possible.

 

When he deemed the task completed to his satisfaction, Nick pulled his head back to observe her. Judy looked like she had been through what could possibly be described as a wind tunnel, the fur on her head slicked back with his saliva and a delighted smile on her face.

 

“My turn!” Judy chirped, paws flying to the nearest tufts of orange fur she could grab onto. By comparison, her scent marking was far more quick and frenzied, but covered less of an area per pass than his did. Also, unlike a fox’s scent markings, she used a different part of her anatomy.

 

_Oh . . . well that’s new_ , Nick thought as Judy ran her chin up and down the length of his snout. _Scent glands in her chin._ _So that’s what that was earlier._ _I swear, the moment I think she can’t get any cuter she blows my expectations completely out of the water._

 

Judy sighed, stepping back to admire her work. The fur across Nick’s face was smoothed back, and perhaps under direct light or scrutinizing eyes, one could see the clear liquid of her scent markings holding his fur down.

 

They took the other in for a moment of comfortable silence against the backdrop of their city. For both, the marking itself was incredibly satisfying in an old, intrinsic way. Marking the mammal most desired to be kept as close for as long as possible. It felt good, appropriate, needed, right.

 

And both of them, while not having voiced it outright, were more than willing to keep the other at their side for as long as possible.

 

“Even then,” Nick said, “your nose did that cute little twitching thing the whole time you were on me.”

 

Judy threw a mild punch into his arm. “Once a day, Slick,” she chided him. “You still have yet to earn the privilege to call me cute more than once per twenty-four hour cycle!” As quick as she landed the taunt, she looped arms with him again and the pair moved back into the building, much to the chagrin of a smiling fox.

 

“Oh, real quick, walk or take the train?”

 

“Which is faster?”

 

“Definitely the train,” Nick answered. Judy gave Nick a slightly pained look and he knew the answer to that question.

 

“Next question: whose place? Yours or mine?” Nick asked as he opened the terrace door.

 

“That depends. Do you have neighbors that may actually give running commentary?”

 

Nick’s eyebrows went up. “Nope, but I live in what at best could be called a hipster’s dream apartment. Because it’s literally a refurbished basement room that’s only separated from the entire building’s boiler room by a concrete wall. So it’s not really the kind of ‘warm and cozy’ abode most are used to.”

 

Judy considered for a moment then shrugged. “Your call. Honestly, I am perfectly okay with the sounds of your place, but I also wouldn’t mind keeping the neighbors awake.”

 

“Yours then,” Nick said, leading her down the stairs. “A little running commentary doesn’t sound all that bad. Hell, it even sounds kinda fun. Is it like basketball where it’s a play-by-play of every move or more like golf with bouts of silence, a profound comment, and gentle applause?”

 

Inside, as they moved down the staircase towards the now thinning crowd inside Fraise, an idea popped into Nick Wilde’s mind. One with the excitement of a newly hatched hustle, a giddy sensation he hadn’t felt in some time, and one he was more than willing to indulge in.

 

Okay, it would involve embarrassing his favorite rabbit, but after the ribbing she had let him endure at the beginning of their date, it was only just. An ideal opportunity for a bit of payback.

 

“Hey Carrots,” Nick started, steering them towards the almost deserted bar, “you mind taking a quick pit stop at the bar for just a moment?”

 

Nick was still thrilled at the expression she gave him and the complementing response. “I was really, really hoping we could just leave and go anywhere more . . . _private_. I need to take you up on many things,” Judy deadpanned, “the licking and dress removal by claws included.”

 

The fox almost said ‘fuck it’ to the hustle at hearing those words. And the rubbing of the fabric against his front wasn’t helping. But a fox is never so easily deterred from what it wants.

 

“Oh don’t worry, a Wilde keeps his word and this will only take a moment,” Nick said through a forced exhale. “Hey, you remember that caracal from earlier, right?”

 

The pair arrived at the bar in front of a seated, lone female caracal entertaining herself with the straw in her drink. She turned to the fox and rabbit, and Judy would be lying if the wide feline smile Mara Brisbane gave them didn’t kick the rabbit’s heart rate up at least a few extra beats per minute.

 

“Mara,” Nick said, placing one paw on Judy’s back and pushing her a little more forward, “I’d like you to meet my date for the night. The one and only Judy Hopps.”

 

“Uhm, h-hi!” Judy waved and gave a half-smile.

 

Mara met Nick’s eyes for one moment and instantly knew the look. From one hustler to another, a look that conveyed the unspoken message of ‘go ahead and take her for a ride. She won’t know, and it will be a hoot’.

 

The look that said the game was afoot. Mara launched right into it.

 

“So you’re the lucky lass Wilde was bragging to me about,” Mara noted. “Boy o’ boy, you look absolutely gorgeous tonight, love. I am really diggin’ that little black choker! Set on spoiling this fox on the first night out, huh?”

 

Judy responded with a polite and honest ‘thank you’ followed with ‘that’s the plan’, but was focusing not on their conversation but on scanning every inch of the caracal for any possible sign of a threat. The feline’s eyes were big but not threatening. Her smile, while full of sharp teeth, didn’t betray any hints of malice. And her tone certainly wasn’t mocking. Honestly, it seemed quite genuine.

 

_Relax,_ Judy thought to herself, _just like with the lions from earlier. Nothing at all wrong with her. She’s just – kinda – open, that’s all. Forward. Besides, it’s good for me to be working up_ –

 

Whatever other thoughts that were streaming through her mind were stopped as Mara quickly leaned into Judy’s personal space. The rabbit went wide-eyed and the caracal’s pupils narrowed.

 

“Hmmmm,” Mara pondered, inhaling around Judy’s face. “Seems your night’s off to a good start. Don’t worry Ms. Hopps, I won’t go and ‘investigate’ like this over your newly minted mate. Can tell just fine by the slicked back fur on his face you had a go at him, too.”

 

Judy tried to say ‘thank you’, again, but was instantly stopped. Judy was sent up on her tiptoes. Mara had quickly, and without warning, maneuvered her head into and under the crook of Judy’s neck, putting her nose into the underside of the rabbit’s chin.

 

‘Ahhhhhhhh’ was what Judy managed to squeak out as Mara inhaled the rabbit’s natural perfume from the small scent gland. Feeling Mara exhale against her neck snapped Judy out of her trance.

 

“Woahhhh My God You Are So Forward!!” Judy accused in a completely bewildered expression, quickly spacing herself from the now wide-eyed caracal. The caracal did not look in the slightest deterred. Rather, she almost looked further enlivened by the bunny’s reaction.

 

“You . . . you must make the absolute _cutest_ noises in bed,” Mara purred, eyes taking on a very hooded and possibly hungry look. Her comment also sounded very . . . genuine. “I bet you look even better without all those clothes on.”

 

“Huh,” Judy heard Nick mutter, “makes two of us.”

 

Judy, just trying to work her jaw in response, couldn’t help but compare the look to one Nick had given her earlier.

 

She wanted to see his look again, wanted to feel the charge of adrenaline sink in across her skin and into her pelvis and chest and head at seeing the very male fox look at her with that hunger. And she wanted to tell Mara that only one predator in this city had her explicit permission to call her ‘cute’.

 

“Nick,” Mara continued, “did you bring your date down here just to ‘introduce’ us? I’m flattered.”

 

Judy was quick to catch onto that insinuation. “No! Noooo, he just said we were stopping by to say hi and introduce ourselves – myself!” she nervously corrected. She waited for a response from anyone, but heard only the sounds of tightly held breath escaping. Judy looked back and forth between the fox and the caracal. Mara wore a shit-eating grin. Nick’s eyes were closed, he was biting his lip, and Judy was now aware that he was slightly shaking.

 

Nick was trying with all of his might to not laugh.

 

And then it all clicked. Judy pointed one finger at him, face in shock. “You! This . . . this is a roast, isn’t it!? You let me roast! You let her roast me!”

 

Nick finally let out several barks of laughter. “Oh, it was only for a moment, Carrots. Besides, only fair that I got you back for the beginning of this evening.”

 

Judy huffed, her cheeks puffing out just a little, and Nick could instantly tell the ribbing was still in good graces.

 

“We’ll leave you to your ‘hunt’ and your drinks,” Nick saluted Mara. She winked back with a smile.

 

“It was, uhm, nice meeting you,” Judy said, finally regaining some of her composure, “you really got me good there with all those compliments.”

 

“Oh sweetie,” Mara purred, and actually purred loudly enough that Judy’s ears picked up the vibrations from the cat’s chest, “I meant every single one.” Again, as frighteningly genuine as could be.

 

Judy raised one arm and one finger, opening her mouth to say something, but all that came out was silence. Nick slowly began walking behind her towards the exit, and Judy swiveled her arm and pointed to the door, quickly catching up to her date and re-looping her arm with his.

 

Mara watched with fascination and admiration as the pair exited Fraise.

 

_Wow, I never thought a rabbit butt could be so cute yet so sexy,_ Mara thought, admiring the toned rear of the bunny Nick held so close to him, _Maybe I should’ve led with that . . . and maybe I should try nabbing a rabbit for an evening sometime._

 

~

 

The train was crowded. Which honestly surprised no one, considering it was the weekend, it was well into the night, and the train was a moving concoction of the scents of sweat, booze, tobacco, weed, catnip, and the wildly varying and pungent aromas of various turned-on mammals. A group of sheep, all drunk, were laughing over several sequences of jokes only known to them. A male lion was busy making out with two female lions, each residing on one separate knee. Two opossums were engrossed in their phones. The fox and the bunny were on no one’s radar.

 

Judy and Nick stood side-by-side, backs to the side of the car, out of most mammals’ ways, staring at the opposite side but not really noticing anything.

 

Nick’s paw drifted down her back, circling the small of her back and fingers briefly catching the cotton ball of her tail. She flinched and bit down on her lip at feeling sharp claws trace a very sensitive area.

 

Going with the guise that their movements would be hidden with their backs to the side of the train car, Nick chanced letting his one paw stray further down until he cupped one beautifully firm and slim cheek.

 

To Nick’s mild surprise that was almost instantly outweighed by greater enjoyment, Judy pushed her butt back into his palm, ever so slightly, making sure that he was feeling the most he possibly could of her rear. The impish grin on her face egged him on, daring him to be more assertive, to see if he could push her envelope a little further. The glance she shot him solidified it.

 

“You think you’re just so hot to trot, don’t you?” Nick said nonchalantly.

 

“Can’t say I’m one who’s yet to lose her cool tonight, Slick,” the rabbit shot back. “You and the caracal think so. And yes. Judging by that stray paw of yours and the much needed physical attention I’m finally getting, I’d say I am hot to trot,” Judy giggled. To drive her point, Judy pretended to shift her weight around on both feet, the result being her rear doing a quick and lively dance in Nick’s flexing paw.

 

“So much so, I don’t think you could take that paw off me if you tried,” Judy teased.

 

His response came out a little more forceful than normal. “That a bet?”

 

“Awww,” she cooed. “The big bad fox, acting sooo tough.” Another ruffling of her tail and subsequent wiggle of her rear. Another grin that spelled ‘Rabbit = One. Fox = Zero’.

 

Nick sighed, then smiled. “Hopps, you will be the glorious death of me.”

 

Nick only moved his paw back from her about three or four inches. But that was all the wind up he needed to bring his paw back to her butt as quickly as he could.

 

The sound of the spank was hidden under the normal cacophony of the train’s wheels and metal joints creaking and jarring. Judy, regardless, wholly felt it: the delightful and painfully sweet sensation that snapped across her butt and crested instantly in her center, nothing like a slow ocean wave and completely akin to an explosive shockwave. The single spank was highlighted four-fold by four wonderfully sharp claws that would hopefully leave something of a mark.

 

She lifted a few inches off the floor and emitted a high-pitched squeak. To her credit, the moment she returned to the metal surface of the train’s floor, she threw both paws in front of her mouth to seal off the escaping sounds of release she so badly wanted to set free.

 

Nick surveyed his surroundings. Like he suspected, only one sheep glanced over, eyes lidded with too much booze. Within a moment, the sheep was focused back on his group. The train car crowd did not notice or care to notice.

 

Nick looked back over to see ruby red radiating from the cavities of her ears. And despite the large, mingling pool of scents on the train, he picked up a whiff of something so familiar and so desirable. Nick didn’t even bother trying to disguise himself as he licked his lips.

 

Nick leaned over to her. “Well, I was able to remove it for a moment. Hope that counts.”

 

Judy’s head spun to face him, and Nick almost openly laughed. Judy Hopps was trying her damnedest to suppress the giddy smile and pupil-dilated eyes from completing betraying her face. She was trying so hard to feign anger when she was clearly feeling the opposite of angry.

 

“A ‘thing’ for sharp ends, we said earlier, right?” Nick remarked, pretending to be oblivious to Judy’s current state.

 

“I cannot believe you,” Judy breathed, still trying to pretend like she was angry with him, “I almost yelled your name in the middle of a crowded train car! I’m so embarrassed!” There were other thoughts she wanted to get off her chest, like the part about wanting so badly to take off her underwear. It was starting to feel too constraining, and she wanted to feel his claws against her bare bottom, no cloth to dilute the contact.

 

Nick made a face pretending like he was sorry and leaned his muzzle into the crook of her ear. “Don’t worry about embarrassing yourself. Our fellow riders here are too wrapped up in their own worlds to notice a fox and a rabbit exchanging pleasantries. But don’t worry; I certainly heard you. Not much else gets a hungry fox going like the sound of his prey. And I really, really liked what I just heard. I’d like to hear more. Much more.”

 

Nick issued a small growl, more of a forceful purr, into her ear. “I’ll even hold those little paws back and let you moan and scream my name as loud as you want.” His paw gave her other cheek, the one not currently buzzing with a hot sensation of pleasure, a firm and full grab. Judy felt his claws plucking at the fabric of her dress.

 

Judy’s foot began thumping with fevered impatience against the floor. Nick kneading her rear was actually beginning to elicit very small whimpers, one that seemed to just slip out from the corners of her mouth.

 

“This train _cannot_ go fast enough,” Judy muttered. Nick agreed with a small smile and a very excited and lively growl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the heavy flirting! Next chapter we get to the good stuff ;) Nick and Judy have some 'knots' they have to work out. As always, tell me what you thought, and thanks for reading!!


	5. Your Body is My Temple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp, here it is! Finally, full bore smut that i have long been promising! Massive and unending thanks to DrummerMax for proofreading this colossal son of a bitch and making it muchhhh more readable!!

The moment the train doors opened, a rabbit bolted from the crowd just starting to make its way out. A moment later, a fox sprinted out right behind her. A few mammals took note of it, but in a city so large, so strange, and so diverse, it wasn’t that out of the ordinary. And if it just happened to be something that was too out of the ordinary, maybe it was best that no one got involved.

 

For Judy and Nick, it was for the best that no one got involved. It would have put a serious damper on the fun.

 

~

 

The duo had settled on a bet for when the train arrived at their stop. Judy had mentioned it when they were about one station away.

 

“So, uh, how about a bet? To make the walk home fun?” she asked, fists balling up in excitement.

 

“Knowing I get to eat you out when we get back isn’t fun enough?” Nick replied.

 

Judy smiled and bit her lip. “Definitely fun enough. Butttt . . . How . . . about . . . loser has to provide for the other first?”

 

“Hmmm. If I touch your door first, you go down on me first? That kind of deal?”

 

“Heyyy!” Judy said with mock admiration at his deduction. “Now you’re getting it! Opposite applies for me if I get to the door first.”

 

“So I get to finally taste bunny if you beat me there. Got it!” Nick thought for a moment, then added, “Don’t tell me this is a strict ‘one or the other’ kind of bet.”

 

Judy looked at him with horror. “Are you kidding me!? What kind of monster would set up those kinds of terms? Told you, I am gonna feel that tongue all over myself tonight if it’s our last night on Earth.”

 

“What do you always say?” Nick asked sarcastically. “A bit of competition makes it all the more fun?”

 

“Oh yeah,” Judy said. “Ohhh. Yeahhh.”

 

In the dim light of the train car, the overhead intercom system announced, “Next Stop: Vinewood Station.” Ergo, theirs.

 

Next to the frisky little bunny, Nick watched Judy lean down and tear the sides of her dress up to about her knees to allow more flexibility to run. She glanced back at him with a grin that practically said _I am taking this quite seriously. I intend on beating a fox to my own door while he chases me down._

_A chase,_ Nick thought as he began rolling his shoulders. _Why is the idea of chasing her . . . so exciting?_ The idea of running after her actually seemed appealing, seemed very, very exciting. _Must be another one of those old ‘evolutionary holdovers’ . . . You certainly bring out the best in me, Hopps._

“You really want to make this an actual race?” he asked her, feeling the drag on his body as the train began slowing towards their stop.

 

“You bet your tail I do,” Judy breathed back, who was beginning to assume a runner’s stance and was eyeing a near line of sight to the train door. “I want to feel you after me and I want to be the one to get special attention first.” _Honestly Nick, I don’t give a damn who gets there first. It’s just that the idea of you chasing me is too great to pass up. Really, really great and why oh why is the train taking so long to get to the damn platform??_

 

“I promise you will be feeling many, many new things tonight,” Nick said back, rolling his head side to side, also preparing a four-legged stance. “The feeling of a very hungry predator chasing after his prey included.”

 

The excitement in her eyes was actually noticeable, a flicker of adrenaline that may have colored her irises a shade darker. “Any last words before you lose?” Judy taunted, her rear wiggling in anticipation.

 

Nick leaned over and placed his muzzle in her ear. He purred, “My last words, huh?” Judy felt her breathing come to a complete stop. She didn’t want to miss a word. They could feel the train almost coming to a halt at their destination.

 

“Make me work for it,” the fox growled. “Run, rabbit. _Run_.”

 

The train came to a complete stop. Both of them held their breath. The doors slid open, and in a grey blur, Judy was gone through the crowd.

 

It only took a second, maybe two, for Nick to react. Something entirely new to the fox, something buried so deep in the ancient mammalian conscious of Nick Wilde, something uniquely predatorial, flew on with the ferocity of an engine roaring to life. It issued a single command that Nick’s body obeyed before the thought reached the conscious mind’s eye.

 

_Hunt_

 

Nick was out the train after her on all fours. The almost euphoric jolt of adrenaline made all senses dial to ten. Despite being immersed in a city with millions of mammals, her scent suddenly stood out with stark potency. That should have caught him up to her, but Judy was thinking along the same lines, running on all fours. If they were really going to run, the old-fashioned way would be the only way.

 

Their world – their city – blurred by them in streaks of color, movement, and sound. On all fours, the thrill of the chase and the prospect of catching or being caught were nerve-fraying charges of energy to the entire system.

 

For both of them, it was pure excitement to be a part of something so primeval, so deeply engrained within the caves of the buried animals in them.

 

Judy split left at one block, believing that it would buy her a few crucial moments to beat Nick to her apartment. Moments later, Nick arrived at the spot she previously veered at, and continued forward.

 

_Nothing more exhilarating than an ambush,_ he thought.

 

Judy and Nick arrived at opposite ends of her deserted street, each staring the other down and the terrace to her apartment building squared at the center of the block. Both stopped, Judy on three limbs with one raised slightly off the ground in trepidation, Nick staying on all fours, his tail wagging back and forth with static glee.

 

From down the street, Judy clearly saw Nick’s tongue snake out from his maw. The fox licked his lips at finding a rabbit. His torso was heaving from the exertion, and it didn’t look like he minded one bit.

 

They were going to have to sprint full bore towards each other to the door.

 

Her hearing, honed in on the predator, heard him taunt her, “Run, run, run . . . as fast as you can.”

 

The fox and the rabbit sprinted towards each other, hearing nothing but the rushing air, the wailing of car horns, and the pounding rhythms of their heartbeats.

 

Judy reached the steps of the terrace first, if not by only a foot. Behind her, immediately at the moment her feet began to propel her up towards the entrance, she heard the distinct and almost piercingly loud sounds of sharp nails catching against concrete. She was hearing Nick skid past the space on the street she previously occupied. She did not know that while three clawed paws were grabbing and skidding on the concrete, one of his paws was extended and grabbed the bannister’s bottom railing. When Judy reached the top of the stairs, Nick started back up at her.

 

While she had the foresight to have her door key at the ready, the moment she unlocked and threw the foyer door open, the fox was within inches of her, paw extended towards her rear.

 

Nick managed to only lightly graze the very end of her tail.

 

_So damn close,_ he thought as the rabbit sped up the stairs away from him, _so very, very close!_

 

The pair sprinted down her hall, the hazel blur of her door in both their eyes.

 

In one second, Judy reached for her door, fully expecting her paws to make contact first.

 

In the next second, an orange paw shot out next to her. And instead of reaching for the door, it hooked in. In one fluid motion, Nick cupped that paw around Judy’s front, stopping the rabbit within inches of her victory line, and spun her around to face him, that same paw latching onto the small of her back.

 

Judy was unaware of his other paw slapping onto her door, stopping both of their momentums, as his mouth covered hers. Their kissing quickly became desperate, laced with need and impatience to get at one another.

 

“I still get to eat you out,” Nick purred to her through a wide smile, starting to massage one petite breast in his free paw. With one claw he began to rub an increasingly hard nipple through the fabric.

 

Judy’s response was a choked moan, her paws working to open her clutch and summon her apartment keys. “S-sounds g-great! Oh God, hold on, hold on – give me a sec to get my keys!”

 

Judy spun to face her door and physically looked into her clutch, eyes darting between every little item stuffed into the purse, looking for anything with a metallic glint. Having two separate key chains for building and apartment was not a wise choice.

 

Standing behind her, Nick ran through several sure-fire distractions for his bunny, and decided on number four. He placed one paw on the top of her back and slowly began running his fingers down her figure, claws quickly catching and releasing on any loose line of clothing. Nick leaned into the back of her head and began routing through the thin and tightly furrowed fur at the base of her neck. He smiled at feeling her jump and hearing a tiny surprised gasp when his lips peeled back to set free a few very sharp teeth, parting the fur and nipping at tender skin.

 

His other paw didn’t stop at her butt. It slipped between her cheeks and felt for the hottest area. One that was unsurprisingly very damp and very, very warm. Judy jumped a little more at that advance, and the happy and excited laugh that escaped her only edged his actions more.

 

“Ohhhh Yes – No! No, wait! I – oh lord – Nick! I need to find my keys,” Judy panted, “I am not tipsy enough to blow you in my hallway.”

 

“You’d give me a blowjob in your hallway? Judes, I’m flattered,” Nick said, taking a long lick from the base of her neck up to between her ears. Judy shuddered, ushered more thanks to whichever God she meant to reference, and issued a triumphant ‘Ah Ha!’ at finding a clinking, silver laden key chain.

 

At hearing and seeing her joy at locating the elusive keys, the fox’s one paw, still massaging between her thighs, pushed inwards and found yielding resistance and increasingly wet heat. The rabbit squeaked and fumbled the keys from paw to paw, further and further down, until she was nearly doubled over.

 

Judy shot back up, jiggled the keys into the lock, and practically threw her door open. The rabbit spun to face her date, wide-eyed and grinning from ear to ear, taking his paw and, without much resistance from the fox, pulled him inside. With one back leg, Nick kicked her door shut and closed what little distance remained between them.

 

Now, both could clearly taste the adrenaline and excitement in each other. The rhythm established during dinner was easily recalled and held, now with greater passion and urgency. Paws began running over every inch they could cover. Their bodies tried to minimalize the amount of space between them.

 

“Your clothes,” Nick exhaled into her neck, “they need to come off. _Now_.”

 

Judy just motioned to the length of her body, eyes shut in anticipated bliss, breath coming out from an open smile. “Claws . . . use them . . . please,” she motioned up and down her body.

 

One paw grasped the back of her head and pulled her into the crook of his neck. The hot and violet-esque scent of fox was becoming palpable. His other paw, and his claws, prickled against the back of her neck.

 

At that sensation, the old world wiring flew on. An old voice, maybe instincts, maybe remnants of survival long buried underneath conscious will and experience, began frantically whispering in Judy’s mind.

 

_Danger danger danger there’s a fox very very close to you and he has extremely sharp claws and teeth_

 

To which Judy quickly thought how goddamn happy she was to have someone so trusted yet so capable of inflicting lethal injury in her arms and currently working her like a marionette.

 

“Oh God oh MY god,” Judy breathed out at feeling claws starting to run down her neck, skipping over the choker and catching onto the fabric of the dress.

 

“Do _not_ move,” Nick quietly instructed her.

 

To her credit, when it happened, Judy only moved slightly upwards on her tiptoes. Two simultaneous sounds filled her apartment room. The first was the sharp and rapidly staccato tearing of hundreds of threads as Nick’s claws raked down the back of Judy’s dress. The second was the sharp inhale from Judy, an inhalation composed of a combination of choked anxiety and desperate want.

 

She felt several somethings ghost the cloud of her tail, several sharp somethings, and her grip on Nick tightened.

 

“There we go,” Nick told her, pushing ever so slightly away from her. And with their sudden lack of full body contact, Judy’s dress dropped from her body into a shredded, tattered rag onto the floor. She stood a pace from him, and Nick was now admiring the rather provocative and petite lingerie on his rabbit. Matching bra and panties. Black and lacey, with a small red bow adorning the top of the underwear, directly beneath her naval and above the one place Nick was becoming more and more impatient to explore.

 

“I want you to know,” Nick started, “that I really appreciate you getting all dolled up for me. Right down to your panties. Wow.” Nick looked like an unexpected thought crossed his mind.

 

“Did . . . did you wear those because you were planning on me seeing them?”

 

“Yup,” Judy answered candidly. “And for you to see me out of them.” With that, she reached behind her back and popped her bra off. It practically drifted with lazy abandon to the floor, settling near her feet.

 

The first logical action that came to Nick was immediately followed. He smoothed over both of her small breasts with both paws and began rolling and massaging her nipples. It was one of the many little things that managed to turn him on even more about her. Judy was petite. Her whole body was. Compact, gorgeous, sexual . . . all in a smaller form than what he had been used to his whole life.

 

And now, listening to her gently moan and whisper his name as he kneaded her bare chest, the faintest raised mound of a dewlap collared around her neck and dipping between her breasts, Nick couldn’t imagine wanting her different in any conceivable way.

 

‘I am not going to stop you from touching me anywhere tonight,” Judy told him as she placed both of her paws over his as they began rolling her hardening nipples. “And I mean that. This feels soooo damn nice. But, I think you caught your rabbit, and she owes you something – EEEPP!”

 

Nick had forgotten how light Judy was. Despite being mostly solid muscle, compared to him, she weighed so much . . . lighter. Picking her up, with his hands on her rear, required almost no strain on his part. One more little thing he just loved about her.

 

Judy tried saying something more, but his mouth covered hers again, his tongue greedily pushing into her own, his teeth brushing against her lips. As he walked them over to her bed, her paws were frantically pulling open and away at his shirt.

 

“You got to reduce me to nothing but panties and a choker,” Judy told him as he deposited onto her bed. “Only fair that I get to see you naked, too.”

 

“Funny,” Nick said while ripping off his own clothes as quickly as he could, efficiency and patience for his undressing long gone, “that would leave the clothed score two to nothing.”

 

“Such an impatient fox.” Judy got up onto her knees, now eye level with Nick’s bare chest. “You’ll get to see all of me. I promise. But first things first.” As Nick fumbled with his belt, Judy ran her paws up his chest, feeling the lean sheet of muscle underneath his fur flex and smoothen out. She heard the metal of his belt buckle crack against the floor, followed by the crumpling of his clothes.

 

Judy began planting many small kisses along his abdomen, up and along the sides of his stomach and towards his pelvis. For Nick, each peck was a sweet and quick note of pleasure, gentle yet exciting, slightly reserved yet eagerly seeking. As Judy made her way down to his front, her paws grabbed his butt and pulled him towards her.

 

With that, both of them were sprawled across her bed; Judy in a choker and her underwear, Nick in nothing but his fur. Judy took a moment to admire his naked form, noting the cream-colored swath that ran from the bottom of his lower jaw down his stomach and into his pelvis. The cream color was the only color present across his sex. His testicles and sheath had very short and fine beige-colored fur.

 

The ruby red flesh of his cock that was pushing past the lips of his sheath was the exception. The clear bead of precum forming at the end of his tapered length was the trifecta for the immediate color scheme.

 

Nick took a moment to appreciate the very wide-eyed Judy kneeling across from him. Her nose was twitching. Either indicating fear, curiosity, excitement, arousal . . . maybe all of those things.

 

_Yup, it is official. After this, I can’t ever go back to bucks. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Not against . . . this. Not against Nick._

 

Judy moved towards Nick, her paws gliding across the insides of his spread thighs and up towards his organ. Laying out her body between his legs, her head and paws came to a stop in front of his crotch.

 

The heady aroma of his sheath actually made her sex ache, both an indicator and reminder of just how painfully empty she was. Judy barely swallowed the frustrated moan back down her throat and focused her attention on him.

 

“I have been waiting to do this for so long now,” she whispered over the head, her nose now spasmodically twitching and curling as she continued to breathe in. “How on Earth do you smell so good??”

 

Nick had an answer ready, but it came out in the form of a high-pitched whine as Judy took just the head of his cock into her mouth. Both of his paws flew to his mouth as her tongue began massaging around his entrance, lapping up the beads of excitement coming from him.

 

So lightly salty it bordered on sweet. Maybe that was the pineapple at work. Ultimately, Judy was just thrilled to feel Nick react to her in such a submissive way. His pelvis jerked forward, trying to get more of himself into her mouth and possibly down her throat. His legs closed and pressed around and against her. The warmth of his body and the softness of his fur against hers were enrapturing. With both paws against the tops of his legs, Judy held him to the bed while she suckled just the end of him.

 

_You’ll get there, you’ll get there, I promised,_ she thought as she broke her engagement to his member with an audible _smack_ , completely akin to a wet and open kiss. Her paws moved across and center to his balls, each coming under and taking one egg-sized testicle into the centers of her palms. Her thumbs ever so gently pressed against the velvety soft fur and skin of his pouch, against the other sides of his balls. More of his crimson sex began to pass up through the lipped ring of his sheath, and a thick mass was beginning to form at the base, hidden beneath the still expanding cream-furred skin.

 

“I don’t suppose it would do you any harm to inform you that I have watched a few amateur porn videos with foxes,” Judy told him in a singsong voice. “And for a while now, I’ve always wanted to know what you looked like naked. And you are just . . . absolutely amazing, Nick.” One paw abandoned an orb to feel the swelling circular mass beneath his thinly taut sheath. It felt degrees hotter than the rest of him, and the moment she rolled her fingers around it, Nick just gasped, “Hhhnngg holy Christ Judy . . . ”

 

She continued like she hadn’t heard him, quickly planting another quick and wet kiss on the pointed end of his cock. “I cannot wait to see your knot. I also can’t wait to feel it pressed up against my lips.” To make a show of it, she held his eye contact while licking her lips, her fingers rolling against his testicles, eliciting another choked moan and another line of precum to slowly drip out from his tip and onto the fur of his stomach.

 

Judy broke the line of fluid by taking his head and the beginning of his length into her mouth. She felt his hips reflexively lurch forward again and heard the small groan of frustration from the fox.

 

“I’ll only take you all the way in my mouth if your ‘base’ comes out,” she gently taunted him. One paw ventured from his sack to the swelling mass of his knot that was within an inch of pushing past the end of his sheath.

 

Judy, despite how much she was truly enjoying playing with his body, had grown impatient with the surfacing of his full organ. She wanted to see him _now._ “You know,” she told him, placing both paws on the hot mass of cream-colored fur at the base of his dick,” I bet it would feel so – _SOOO_ – good to have your knot buried in me.”

 

That did it.

 

Another bucking of his hips, a throaty moan, and the bulbous base of Nick’s knot almost popped past the skin of his sheath, a dark crimson color just like the rest of his organ.

 

Judy was instantly enraptured. The object of so many fantasies, the pinnacle thought of so many mind and body rattling orgasms she had to induce on her own, was only a few inches from her face, and going by the hungry and desperate look on Nick’s face, it was all hers to use.

 

So she acted on the first notion that passed out from her subconscious. She began planting numerous, small kisses around the base and widest point of his knot. It really did seem degrees hotter than the rest of him. It reeked of fox musk, of purely male sweat and violets. The heavy smell of him was making her vision swim and her body sway.

 

From Nick’s view, Judy was insistent on running her tongue up and down the length of his cock, occasionally taking him into her mouth at intervals, swallowing more and more of him with each attempt, the wet line of her saliva mixed with his excitement getting closer and closer to the engorged mass at his base.

 

Her tail end was propped up higher than her head, and with her ears held against her back, he had a clear view of her firm and supple rear, along with her cotton swab of a tail twitching and flicking each time she came in contact with his knot.

 

“I have no idea . . . ” Judy breathed with her face currently pushed into the top of his sack and the base of his knot, “how . . . or whyyy . . . you smell so good.”

 

“I’d call you a freak, but I – _oh sweet_ Jesus – I love this way too f - fucking much,” Nick exhaled back, “and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t itching to get ahhh haaaha a taste and ahhh gaahhd _more_ of you.”

 

With lips and nose pressed against his length, nose twitching and inhaling as deeply as she could, Judy smiled. “Happy to hear the enthusiasm runs both ways.” She peered at him from the side of his sex, spacing her words with tongue laps against any surface she felt she had so far neglected the most.

 

Speaking of which, Judy wondered if she could actually take his entire dick into her mouth, right up to his knot. She did promise him that, after all.

 

There was a famous saying for these kinds of things: Only one way to find out.

 

Judy quickly moved her head up to meet his second head, opened her mouth, and just pushed her head down. Nick gasped at feeling the wonderful warmth of her mouth and tongue engulf him. Before, she had been just an inch from bumping her nose into his knot. Now, he actually felt, then saw, that button nose wiggling against his base.

 

The spring was beginning to wind past the point of control for Nick. Judy slowly and steadily increased the rate at which she bobbed her head up and down his length, the red skin becoming wet with her spit. Feeling her soft lips wrap around the head and width of him in what could only be described as greed, an insistence that for a brief moment she broke away from her task, a trail of glistening spit and precum trickled from her lips to his head. Judy smiled and planted a kiss on his tip that widened for her to take him up back down to his knot. One of her paws went back to massaging his balls, while the other went and grabbed one side of his rear to better control the rhythm of his thrusting.

 

The spring wound tighter. Judy heard Nick’s volume increasing in his whines, in hearing him mutter, over and over and with more urgency than the last, “Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop, oh god please don’t stop, Please Judy – ”

 

Judy felt his thighs, currently cradling alongside the length of her entire body, go rigid and then begin shaking. A guttural growl started in Nick’s chest and slowly began creaking out from his muzzle. She felt his testicles slip away from between her fingers and up towards his pelvis.

 

Judy quickly placed her other paw under Nick’s raising hips and grabbed the other side of his rear and pushed him towards her, his knot coming to a stop at her lips and nose. The hot smell of his musk, almost overwhelmingly of violets and male sex, practically made her teeth buzz. The first rope of semen splashed throughout her mouth before she took the entirety of him, but she caught the rest directly down her throat. With each pulse, Nick’s body jerked and twisted through his first orgasm, half his weight supported on his paws alone and the other half held by Judy, who was just holding up his butt. With each pulse she swallowed, Judy couldn’t help the moan that accompanied each of his releases. To feel a fox, her fox, so completely under her control and in such an intimate and trusting position sent a lovely and taut strum of desire from her face down to her toes. And judging by the moans and jerks of his cock in her mouth, accompanied by the multiple jets of his ejaculation, it was having a pleasant effect on her fox.

 

Nick’s body slowly relaxed, the tense supports of his arms and legs releasing his frame back to the mattress. Judy followed, but in no way wanting to remove her face from his genitals or her paws from his butt. Wayyyy too hot to let go.

 

The streams and pulses of cum began to thin out and become more fluid in their consistency against the inside of her mouth and at the back of her throat. The swallowing and breathing combination was no problem. And Judy was now betting on how long it would take Nick to notice that she, and any other rabbit for that matter, was capable of swallowing and breathing simultaneously.

 

Turns out, after sucking the spirit out of a fox through his dick, noticing said detail took about nine seconds. But she’d be remiss if she didn’t chalk up him noticing the polishing detail she began administering to the sides of his shaft.

 

“OH f-fuck! Judy, oh my god I feel like ahhhh god h – how . . . ” Nick’s eyebrows perked up as he looked down his stomach at the gorgeous face of the bunny who was still adamantly attached to his penis.

 

“Are you holding your breath?”

 

“Nhhh-hhhm,” Judy hummed. Her answer, which vibrated directly against a still very sensitive area, resulted in another sharp gasp from Nick. The next rope of cum shot into the back of her mouth and tasted and felt a little thicker and heavier than the previous few.

 

“Howwww are y-you – ”

 

“Mhhmm-mmm,” Judy mumbled back, shrugging her shoulders. She knew the answer of course, but she wasn’t quite ready to break contact with his tasty organ just yet. She was deciding if she could somehow bottle up the musk and sweat that seemed to seep from his knot and use it as a ‘solo session’ enhancer. Every single inhale of his scent tripped off a spark of pleasure deep within her sex.

 

After a few moments more, and when his dick stopped twitching on top of her tongue, Judy moved her head slowly back off his, several trails of spit stretching out between her open mouth and tongue and the head of his cock.

 

Judy looked at Nick, bottom to top and back to bottom and smiled wide, pleased with herself and what she had just provided for him. “You taste good. But I’d dare say that you smell even better.”

 

Nick started chuckling. “Happy to hear you don’t think the musk is too much. I’ve seen plenty of other bunnies just wiggle their noses and walk away from me faster at getting a whiff of eau de Fox.”

 

In response, Judy put her nose back at the base of his still swollen knot, which now, she swore, looked a little more full after his orgasm, closed her eyes and inhaled, shuddering. “I . . . don’t think I’m like most other bunnies. Because I never knew someone could honestly smell so god damn _good._ ”

 

Watching her bend over to put her head near his organ, Nick saw her rear rise up. Underwear still on. Nick frowned. Nick wanted her underwear off.

 

He rose to a sitting position and used both paws to pull his partner up and into a standing position in front of him. His head was leveled at her underwear, and the first thing he fixated on was the small, crimson bow stitched on at the top.

 

Judy looked down her small chest at the grinning fox who found her underwear particularly amusing.

 

“I know I already used my ‘once a day’ cute privileges,” Nick started, both paws running up the outsides of her thighs, “but that bow right there? Above your little ‘burrow’? That is cute.”

 

“Flattery, in this one case, will definitely get you somewhere, Nick Wilde.” Both of Judy’s paws had smoothed up her belly and she began playing with her chest, fingers tweaking her almost painfully sensitive nipples.

 

_Well if that’s the case_ , Nick thought to himself.

 

“Did I mention that when we crashed at your place after I used myself as a walking blood bank, I leaned over and sniffed you right here? Right before you woke up to me starting to give you a tongue bath?” Nick pressed his nose against the fabric over her crotch and inhaled. It wasn’t damp. Soaked through was more appropriate. The scent of very excited and horny bunny was there, but it was reduced and lessened by the barrier of clothing. Nick really wanted her underwear off.

 

“Y-you did?” Judy asked. The idea that he had examined her in such a primitive and intimate way sent a sharp muscular pull across her pelvic floor. In front of his nose, Nick actually smelled the pheromone boost.

 

“To make sure that I hadn’t ‘been there’ the night before,” Nick explained, exhaling hot air between her legs, air that seemed to so easily permeate through her short fur and run across her skin. “I wouldn’t have been okay knowing we had done it but have no memory of it. Too impersonal and kinda skeevy.”

 

Judy was going to joke about it, but the sincerity of his concern stopped the words in her mouth. It made her heart flutter. So she just smiled and relished further in his current attention towards her.

 

And just when she was beginning to become emotional, Nick dragged her mind back to the physical with a playful and gentle bite on the inside of her thigh. “You said earlier that it wasn’t the top of your head you wanted me to lick, right?” One of his paws snaked up the back of her thigh and began kneading her rear, the fingers splaying across her underwear and his claws now tearing into the fabric.

 

Her breath caught again at feeling four very sharp knife-ends parting the short fur on her rear as Nick pulled her underwear down off her butt and towards her ankles. The only article of clothing between them now was the choker fixed around Judy’s neck.

 

“Oh. My. God,” Nick breathed, now eye level with the subject of a shameful amount of fantasizing. He shut his eyes. _Patient. Be. Patient. You’ll get there. Despite how much my knot hurts, you’ll soon work that out._

 

Nick stood up on the bed with Judy, pulling her nude body close to his, relishing in feeling the tight and short hair of her stomach press up against his. One of his paws began massaging one breast, taking a nipple between his fingers.

 

“Ahhhh ahhh oh god hnngh oh my,” was what he worked out of Judy’s mouth as he pinched and rolled her teat between his digits and teased it with one claw. Nick took one long drag across the side of her neck, and Judy felt herself melt just that much more. The hot moisture of his tongue pressing against her fur was soon replaced with an icy, cooling sensation the moment the air made contact afterwards. Nick began a routine of licking, then kissing, and then lightly biting the areas of her shoulders, her collarbone, her neck. Each peck of affection pulling the bounded chord of desperation in her body tighter and tighter.

 

“You have such a beautiful chest, you know that?” Nick muttered out between nips and kisses to her body as he began moving back down towards her erect nipples.

 

“Ha ha aggghh God! P-please Nick, I know I give actual b-boards a run for their money,” Judy managed back. Years of high physical activity had kept her chest to what could be politely labeled in the A cup range.

 

“Don’t care, they’re perfect,” Nick sighed to her before taking one nipple and mound into his mouth, tongue rolling and flexing over her, eliciting more moaning from his rabbit. A free paw of his smoothed down the fur across her belly and two fingers found the hottest and wettest part on her body.

 

Her reaction didn’t surprise him. Or her, really. Feeling two cylindrical bodies pressing against the outer folds of her sex, Judy grabbed onto the arm of the paw and began grinding against him, her body shuddering at feeling his paw pads rub against her outer labia and begin massaging the harder bud of her clit.

 

“C-curve your fingers in,” she whispered into one triangular ear. “Ple – please.”

 

Nick did, and her body swallowed both of his fingers up to the knuckles. The result was a sharp gasp, followed by a faster rhythm, and Judy began grinding her pelvis into his hand at a quicker rate. She also began peppering his arm, chest, and whatever other areas she could reach with her face with a barrage of quick kisses, small and devout signs of her growing pleasure and honest affection towards him.

 

The first orgasm’s onset was incredibly sudden. One moment Judy was just riding on Nick’s hand and enjoying the feeling of being at least a little filled, the next she felt two rough paw pads press towards her front, up towards her mons, and in two ‘come hither’ motions, Judy’s body went stiff as metal and she began to climax on Nick’s arm. In the rush of movement, Nick felt her body squeezing down on his fingers then flex open briefly before tightening back around his digits.

 

“OHHH! Oh God, Oh god oh Yes yes yes!!” Judy exclaimed into his arm, tiny fingers finding purchase on any hair long enough that she could hold. Nick watched with both awe and appreciation at his talent and at seeing someone so beautiful somehow become even more so as she began letting herself go. All while physically riding his arm, no less.

 

The hot smell of her sex was starting to fill the room, and with every breath he took, he could clearly smell her arousal, the hot, heady, and savory scent of a doe enjoying herself.

 

Judy let out a small whimper and gave one more full body shudder as her riding slowed.

 

Nick leaned into her ear, if not just for the effect of knowing how she’d react to a fox breathing so close to her. “Lie down. I have been dying to taste you all night.” Judy practically hopped off of him and fell onto her mattress, fists balled in excitement and eyes bright and manic with anticipation.

 

Nick looked at his two fingers, the fur matted down and reeking of exquisite bunny. Nick held eye contact with her as both fingers disappeared into his muzzle, tongue reaching out to meet them and lapping her off his fur, pads, and claws.

 

“That’s . . . just amazing,” Nick said between licking his fingers clean. “I know you won’t take it the wrong way, but holy Christ Judy, I have got to tell you . . . You taste absolutely delicious.”

 

If there was any chance of her jaw dropping further away from her body, and having the knot of sexual anticipation tighten even more in her groin, it all did upon hearing Nick mutter to himself, “I think the taste of rabbit has ruined me. Thank you, but I want more.”

 

Judy felt her heart rate skyrocket at seeing her partner, now only a foot away from her, slowly come down off his knees and begin to crawl at an excruciatingly slow pace towards her on all fours. He wasn’t smiling. Which made sense. Predators hunting prey did not smile. They didn’t want to give away the danger. Not until they had their prey in their claws and teeth. His ears twitched, both pivoted towards her. His nostrils were flaring, and he had a very hungry and possessed look nestled deep in the emerald of his irises.

 

“Nick?” He ignored her, his focus honing in on the apex of her legs. As Nick’s head began to move over her legs, he suddenly nipped at her, the sharp _CLACK!_ of his teeth coming together eliciting a genuine squeak out of her. Her response was the aim of the aggressive bite. Judy parted her legs in response to her predator’s demand.

 

His nose started at the top of one knee and slowly moved in, bursts of hot air batting against the grey fur of her thighs. Beyond him, Judy watched as his tail lazily swayed back and forth, with the occasional shudder and ruffle.

 

She felt a small urge to inform him that her tail was doing a far more excited dance against her back, but Nick was getting painfully close to an area that sorely needed his tongue’s attention. She did not want to stop or delay that, no thank you.

 

To the slightest bit of her happy embarrassment, Judy actually arched out her hips and spread her legs (just a little more) to allow him full access to explore her.

 

His muzzle felt like it was buzzing. The air actually felt hot and a little heavier in density as he breathed her excitement in. It made his mouth water and his lips peel over his teeth in a giddy smile.

 

Putting his nose within a hair’s space between her sex and him, Nick could feel the physical heat radiating off her against his nose. And within a moment of him inhaling her, Nick heard her excitement. He looked up to see Judy staring back down between the small mounds of her chest and dewlap, fists balled at her mouth.

 

Nick put his nose directly into the slightly parted and pink lips of her sex and inhaled.

 

“OHH! Oh my god y-your nose is cold,” Judy said. She could feel his whiskers tickling the sides of her thighs and the outside of her labia. She couldn’t help the small moan of impatience as to why he wasn’t –

 

Her train of thought was instantly derailed as something almost painfully hot smoothed against her pussy. “HAHHH OH! Oh G – God Jee-Sus!”

 

Nick took one quick lick of her sex, light and fast, from the bottom ‘u’ of her lips to the tip of her hood, and then he growled. Her taste made his mouth water and his body ache to be inside her. His erection throbbed. She tasted like lust incarnate. The epitome of his desire.

 

Nick was thankful that their fun didn’t stop at just getting to eat her out.

 

“Oh God, Oh god oh god yes, yes, yessss,” Judy whined as Nick planted a full-bodied kiss against her lips and began taking long licks against her, the hot surface of his broad tongue covering her entire entrance and massaging her clit with each pass. He could feel her shudder with each deep kiss and with each lick and growled into her as he continued to push his lips, tongue, and teeth deeper in his exploration of her sex.

 

A mixture of her body’s fluids and his saliva began to run between his lips and her now swollen petals. Judy was white-knuckling her bed sheets, eyes pinched and stomach quivering with each lick and with each kiss.

 

Her begging came out in a forced and strangled whisper. “N-Nick! Oh sweet Jesus, P-please . . . De – deeper, please use tahhh – hhnnghh – tongue and go deeper.”

 

Nick obliged, and was rewarded with her now gasping his name and squeezing her thighs around his head as his tongue pushed past her outer lips and began lapping against and around her inner walls. He tasted the ribbing of her body and felt her clamping down then expanding then clamping back down as his tongue began snaking in and out of her.

 

In the darkness of her closed eyes, Judy felt another wave rising in the pit of her groin. Another vibrating and coiling mass that was beginning to spark and snap in wonderfully pleasurable sparks across her muscles and through her bones. Her breathing was becoming clipped. Her loins were flaring as Nick’s tongue continued to smooth out and press against the inside of her. His top lip was rubbing over and under her clit as his tongue worked to draw out another orgasm.

 

One of his paws moved up her body and began kneading one breast, clawed digits stroking and tweaking the hard nipple. Judy also seemed to enjoy that stimulus, so why not add it into the mix? With that, the advent of orgasm number 2 for Judy came with an explosive acceleration.

 

“AHHHHHH ahhh hnnghh hhnn yessss YES don’t stop, don’t stop, so close, so closeee ahhhh!”

 

Her legs clamped against Nick’s head and her hips started bucking and swaying as her body began convulsing. The explosion of pleasure reverberating out from her center had Judy alternating between gasping for air and using the available breaths to yell out her partner’s name as her pussy clamped down on his tongue.

 

Through it all, Nick continued to roll and twist his tongue in and out from her dripping sex as she grinded herself against his muzzle. The smell of her orgasm filled his head and her screams calling out for him filled his ears. The taste of her body changed, the salty to sweet taste of her liquid orgasm flooding across his tongue and down the back of his throat. He drank her down and continued to move his lips against her labia and clit and his tongue in and out of her canal, siphoning the rest of her built-up excitement.

 

As he felt the tension leave her legs, and the pressure around his head and tongue gradually let up, Nick gave one more quick kiss against her folds.

 

“Everything you thought a licking from me would be?”

 

Judy just moaned in her approval, her body pulsating and mind full of the rich scent of violets and the feeling of a predator’s tongue. “A-and more.” Nick stood back up on his knees, making a show of licking his lips and putting the sides of his mouth, teeth, tongue, and slitted green eyes on prominent display.

 

Judy looked down to see his full arousal hanging between his legs, witnessed the occasional twitch as his body indicated a need to move forward and the clear bead of excitement beginning to run from him again.

 

And just like that, one of the bunny species’ two calls to fame, the one regarding their famous sexual stamina, was fully demonstrated as Judy began wiggling her pelvis down so that her rear touched his thighs and his cock now stood tall above her dripping entrance. The fur around her folds was matted down by both her own effects and his tongue.

 

The look she was giving him was taunting, an impish glint in her eyes that clearly conveyed her intentions.

 

“Ms. Hopps, are you putting out for me on the first date?” he teased through a toothy smile.

 

“Says the fox who just ate me out like it was his last meal,” Judy fired back, grinding her hips up against the base of his knot, feeling the heat radiate off his organ and through her outer lips.

 

“You certainly taste sooo ahh – amazing,” Nick sighed, closing his eyes and issuing a hum of pleasure at the sensation of a very slick pair of very warm lips grazing up and down his knot.

 

Nick opened his eyes and saw Judy eyeing the object of her affections, the lust in her eyes and the steadily increasing speed of her rubbing more than evident.

 

“I’m okay with not trying to fit the knot in tonight,” he told her, holding her gaze. “Plenty of firsts, and I don’t want you to think that you have to get it on the first try.”

 

Judy made a face of shock that was (mostly) mock appalled at the suggestion.

 

“No. Way,” Judy muttered back, her paws reaching up for him, trying to find purchase to pull him on top of her. “I am so d-damn horny and I haven’t gotten to feel you inside me yet, Wilde. Don’t tell me you’d hold out on letting me try _that._ ” Another long grind up and back down his sex, eliciting two lustful moans from two mammals.

 

So . . . she was right. Resistance to the ideal was futile. As if he had any other option he’d even want to consider.

 

Nick bent forward and took a long drag with his tongue up the side of her stomach, across one mound and nipple, and cresting into her neck and jawline while he moved his hips back and lowered his length down in front of her waiting and wanting entrance.

 

The sound from Judy’s mouth was more an exhale than anything else when she felt the tapered end of his crimson sex push up against her slick folds. Her natural reaction was to grind her hips forward and towards Nick, pushing the bulb of his head more into her aching body.

 

Nick arched his hips in, and in one fluid movement, accompanied by Judy’s almost singsong moan of ecstasy, her body took his entire organ, right up to the fist of the swollen base.

 

“Ohhhh myyy goddd,” Judy shuddered. “W-wow, Nick. God Almighty . . . ”

 

His immediate thought was that she was in pain. A fox had to be much larger than the average buck, right? “Oh shit, are you hurt? Are you okay?” Nick asked, unknowingly starting to pull himself back out of her as he tried to get a more complete view of her face.

 

The result of his partial exit was a very honest and eye-lidded moan from his partner, followed by her quickly thrusting herself back up to him. Which, in turn, ushered out a moan from him.

 

“Do you have any idea h-how many times I’ve t – ahhh hnnngh oh my – touched myself, thinking it was you?” she breathed into his ear. “How m-many times I pretended my fingers were yours? And how many times I wished for anything more?”

 

Nick thrust back into her and forced out another squeak, delighting in feeling her body tremble as she took him back in. “I’d be embarrassed to tell you h-how many times I’ve done the same – gaahh holy Christ – thing.”

 

In the relative dark of her apartment, he could clearly see her elated smile, the eager and excited gaze that kept running from his face down to where they were now joined. “It all feels s-so much better in personAAHHH!!” Nick took the moment to quickly pull himself out then run back into her body. Her legs kicked up and looped around the top of his rear, her ankles locking over the base of his tail.

 

The first few collisions were slow, patient, testing the feel of each other’s speed and size. Both knew, by the sounds of joy Judy and Nick made when he entered her and the sounds of disappointment from Judy when Nick exited her, that it was working more than fine.

 

Their pace increased. The speed at which Nick’s considerable length pulled out then reentered her doubled, her lips gripping onto his exiting shaft and applying a clear polish of lubrication to him. With each thrust into her, each movement seeming to push deeper and deeper into her aching body, the springs in both of them began to wind tighter and tighter. Ropes of clear fluid began trailing out from their efforts and began spreading across the sheets, the mattress, matting down the fur on her rear and against his thighs.

 

Through the increasingly sensitive motions he was thankfully subjecting her to, Judy managed to open her eyes to look up at the fox. Above her head, his eyes were closed, focusing intently on the internal pleasure of her canal gripping in greedy want as his cock left her and opening slightly to allow him back in. Nick’s mouth was open as he panted above her, his tongue hanging and swinging freely, the aggressive and purely male sounds of his panting and growling layering on top of her sighs and moans of excitement.

 

It did nothing but enhance their passion further as Judy watched a trail of saliva begin to slowly role out from the side of Nick’s open mouth. Her partner was so enraptured in their mating he couldn’t have been bothered to notice. Or to care.

 

Judy was up first. Her sex began tenting, rapidly opening up then clamping back down onto his cock as it pistoned in and out, feeling the almost painfully hot mass of his knot giving repeated, quick, and firm kisses against the entrance of her pussy, feeling his balls smack against her asshole.

 

Every motion in and out of her wound the spring tighter and tighter. Her moans began transmuting into gasps and finally into only open-mouthed inhales. The small bites of pain on his chest as she gripped as hard as she could only enlivened him. On his dick, Nick could feel her getting ready to cum, and ushered words of assurance to help her over that cliff.

 

“Say it,” he growled into her ear.

 

“Whaa . . . Sa . . . Say . . . wha – what?” Judy gasped. It was difficult trying to form words in response to feeling the almost unbelievable amount of euphoria radiating throughout her entire body from her waist.

 

“My,” Nick started, both of his paws releasing her legs and moving up her torso again, “Name.”

 

Without breaking his pace, Nick grabbed both of her arms and held them above her head, pinning the top of her body to the bed while her bottom continued to shake and jerk from his now rapidly delivered attentions.

 

The too-taut spring began breaking under the increased strain. It needed release, to break free and fly apart into oblivion.

 

“I t-told you,” Nick breathed in, his cackles starting to rise up and his pupils forcing themselves into slits, “nothing gets a fox off like the sound of p-prey. So go ahead and scream – ”

 

_A thrust right to the hilt of his knot_

 

“My – ”

 

_Another deep thrust. Her lips spread wide enough to part up the sides of his knot_

 

“ _Name_.”

 

_One final thrust in._

 

With that, her lips stretched to their widest, and with one firm push and wiggle, his knot slipped inside, her labia swallowing his entire organ up to the beginning of his sheath.

 

The effect for both of them was instant and simultaneous. Judy’s legs went rigid and she tried desperately to scream out her partner’s name. She really, desperately wanted to. What came out was a high-pitched squeal that faintly resembled his name as her conscious mind nearly shut off at the shockwave of the orgasm that exploded through every fiber in her body. Bursts of light radiated and scattered across her field of vision.

 

The feeling of her body so eagerly and hungrily accepting and gripping his drew out the orgasm from Nick. He thought he managed to at least say her name, but what came out was a deep, throttling snarl that tapered sharply into a harsh bark as his body went rigid atop her. Locked firmly in her, the head of his organ pushing as deep into her as his length would allow, Nick almost whined at feeling the rapturous release of ejecting rope after rope of his seed into her. Judy, likewise, was immensely thankful that they didn’t need to worry about pregnancy, and could still feel the blissful, ending joy of such a session filling within herself.

 

Both heard the very sharp tears of fabric parting as all four of Nick’s paws began leaving trenches in the body of her mattress as he rode out his wave.

 

Their awareness was reduced to the sounds of them breathing heavily, the deep and rich scents of their sex making the air warmer, the wet and sensitive sensations of their organs spasming in, against, and around each other.

 

After a minute of what an outside viewer might call ‘exhaustive dry heaving’ between a fox and a rabbit, fully functioning consciousness returned to both of them.

 

“I . . . I have n-not cum that hard in y-years,” was the first thing Judy managed to say.

 

Nick’s nostrils flared. His lungs felt starved for oxygen, his muscles (along with his still pumping organ) were quaking, and the room practically tasted, along with smelled, like dripping wet bunny. It was pure, complete heaven.

 

Nick just nodded and grunted his mutual approval. “I can barely . . . feel my toes,” he told her with a tired smile. “Can still feel around the knot plenty, though.”

 

Judy looked down between her breasts and her belly at where his waist and hers firmly stayed together, if not for the occasional jerk forward.

 

“Oh my . . . I did it,” Judy looked up at him, face of partial shock. Or maybe orgasmic bliss. Probably both. “I actually did it!”

 

“Did what?” Nick asked through an exhausted whisper.

 

“I took your knot!” Judy exclaimed. At her joyous exultation, her stomach flexed, as did her sex around him, eliciting another small growl and a more full-bodied rope of cum into her.

 

“Y-yeah,” Nick breathed out. “Yeah, y-you certainly did. You . . . are beyond incredible, Judy Hopps.”

 

“Fuck yeah! Right back atcha, Nick Wilde!” Judy held up one paw towards Nick’s face. The fox stared at it for a moment before looking to her. She made the repeated ‘stop’ motion with her open palm.

 

“Are . . . are you asking for a high five?!”

 

“Damn right!” Judy answered with a tone of proud seriousness. “Not only did I rock the socks of a fox, but I also took the knot and boy o boy! I am forever grateful to you for introducing _that_ into my life!”

 

His reaction wasn’t what she was expecting. Nick began to laugh at her almost abnormal use of explicit language and her insistence of a victory ‘high five up top’, a tired but honest and full belly laugh that shook him, and therefore, her. Only, it had another effect on his now attached rabbit. With each laugh, Nick shook. With each shake, his length and knot, now swelling more at feeling her tunnel clamp down harder, resonated very, very sharply from her clit down and out to her toes and the tips of her ears.

 

His shaking was bringing on one more orgasm. Judy’s eyes went comically wide.

 

“N-nick? Nick! Oh God, Oh godohgodohgod I’m – Oh sweet cheese and crackers I’m cumming again I’m – I – AHHh hhhnnghh,” the rest of her speech fell apart into choked moans and cries for her lover as another leg-kicking, eye-rolling orgasm rocked her frame and mind.

 

Nick only stopped laughing at the sensation of her body massaging his organ, coaxing more of his produce out from him and into her. So he lowered himself onto her and licked up and down the sides of her neck and face as she rode him through her fourth orgasm that night.

 

~

 

They held onto each other, arms, legs, and genitals wrapped and intertwined with the other. Outside her apartment window, the night of the city continued on.

 

“Want to hear a bad ‘try everything’ pun?” Judy asked.

 

Nick let out a congested laugh. “I’ll pass. Although I honestly doubt much of anything can kill the vibe you have me riding on, Judy.”

 

“Likewise,” she tittered. His one paw had begun tracing intimate and deep circles in her fur, right above her tail.

 

“Not that I mind, at all, about being attached to you at the hip,” Judy mumbled with her face buried in the fur of his chest, “but how long till your dick decides to give up on being locked in me?”

 

“Eh, time varies. Could be thirty minutes. Could be up to an hour,” he told her, getting himself ready for her complaints that that was a ridiculous amount of time.

 

Nothing came except a gentle sigh of happiness from his chest. “That’s good. Let me know if you’re going to move so I’m ready when you are.”

 

Nick tried recalling the last time he was this happy. It didn’t surprise him too much that nothing really stood out that didn’t involve Judy Hopps. He was more than fine with that.

 

~

 

“Alright,” Nick told her, beginning to move up and away from the bunny, “I think that lock is picked and ready to come free.”

 

When his knot finally came free from her body with an audible and wet _POP!_ , with the exiting of his dripping cock came the liquid torrent of his seed. Judy emitted a high-pitched EEEEP! at feeling the still warm liquid run out from between her lips and down between her cheeks and across her butthole. Judy positioned herself to look down and see it for herself. The river of Nick’s second orgasm kept flowing from her. And flowing. And flowing . . .

 

Judy thought it plenty appropriate to call the situation as she saw it. “Jesus Capybara, Nick! That’s enough to fertilize an entire rabbit warren . . . ”

 

“I must be hearing things,” Nick said, arms going slack. “You just complimented me that _that’s_ enough to knock up a whole family of rabbits? You’re actually praising me more than once a day, and it’s for how much I just came in you??”

 

“I mean Yeah! Sweet celery, look at that . . . I know that bucks have plenty of volume too, but wow, this is incredible! When was the last time you unloaded your gun?”

 

Again, there was only laughter from the fox in way of a response, to which Judy let herself join in.

 

~

 

Later, after cleaning up the ‘white oil spill’, as Judy so lovingly called it, and both of them deciding to keep another towel over the large wet spot on the bed, the fox and the bunny curled up with each other under her blankets.

 

“So,” Judy stared, looking up into the startlingly green eyes of her fox, “you and I, huh?”

 

Nick grinned and nodded before saying, “Yup. You and I. You once said you love me, right? That still holding true?” Judy stared back at him, and right then and there, Nick knew the answer to his obvious question before she verbally delivered it to him.

 

“More than ever,” Judy told him with such a wide and full-faced smile. “I know you love me.”

 

Nick couldn’t even pretend to contemplate it. “Do I know that?”

 

He leaned in slightly and kissed her, before answering, “Yes. Yes I do.” Judy snuggled back into him.

 

The pair resigned to just looking at each other as their eyes began fluttering shut. Surprisingly to Nick, Judy fell asleep first. For a short while, Nick listened to the small and woefully cute sounds of her breathing. There were many things on his mind, most almost blissfully pleasant, a few that were concerning. But right now, with someone who made him so unbelievably happy, Nick knew that he could afford to dock away the serious points for a later time and date. Right now, they were just fragments from the past, and despite the weight of them, the past was the past, finished and locked away. An old safe to be opened at another time.

 

For now, for a long time, he figured, Nick could just _be_ with her, could just enjoy her, could just love her as much as she would let him. The opposite applied, and Nick was so excited to have her deliver into him as he would onto her.

 

His eyes came to a stop over the choker still wrapped around her neck. The fabric looked like it was starting to pinch as she began settling into a comfortable position. As gently as he could manage, praying that he didn’t wake Judy from her much needed rest, Nick gently undid the clasp at the back, and removed the garment.

 

Nick knew what he would first see when he looked back at her now barren neck. One of two small, bare patches of skin. What were once wounds that would soon become scars. Old evidence of violence once inflicted against his mate. He had been a little worried, admittedly, that some ugly feeling, something poisonous like anger, regret, disappointment, would creep up into his gut at seeing them again. At seeing the evidence of one horrifying moment, one that he would happily take physical torture over instead of reliving ever again.

 

And at seeing her scars again, without any gauze or bandaging or choker, knowing the story they would carry with them for the rest of their lives, Nick felt . . .

 

okay. He actually felt okay.

 

Because the more he looked at them, the more he just found his eyes trailing back up to examine the details of her face. Not because of distaste or disgust with the wounds or their story, but because he found that he wanted to just look at her, not at the scars. To drink her in, to listen to her, to see the beauty she so gracefully embodied. Nick was just enraptured with Judy.

 

The scars themselves? Nick wasn’t looking at them, wasn’t focusing on them or feeling any ill about them, because they were only evidence of the past. A detail of a story. Done. Finished. Underlined with a nice, fat period at the end. A testament that both she and he had survived what life had managed to throw at them. Together. Then as partners, now as more.

 

Nick Wilde thought for a moment on that last bit. The wide and delighted smile it gave him almost hurt. Almost.

 

Through the pleasant fog of her scent, her fur, and her warmth, Nick wrapped himself around Judy, bulls-eyeing her body against his stomach and sealing around her in a ring of orange fur, his tail swishing to a stop at his face.

 

Within moments, Nick Wilde joined Judy Hopps in a blissful and complete sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to that time twocent finally wrote full bodied smut, totaling around 11,000 words for one chapter. Oh, and a little bit of fluff. Thanks for reading and Cheers! Your thoughts and comments are always appreciated!


	6. NO. VI: THE LOVERS (PART 1: MORNING GLORY)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To all still reading this, thank you for your continued interest. It means so very much. You know the standard reason why this is so late. Life takes precedence, much as i dearly love this. And a very tall thank you to Drummer for so quickly proofing this colossus and for his patience in reading and editing all the junk i throw at him in wildly varying intervals!! 
> 
> Also, you see that i'm starting things between tarot cards and massive ending chapters? Anyway, here's part one of two of the final chapter of Entr'acte. I hope you enjoy it!

NAMES: JUDITH LAVERNE HOPPS & NICHOLAS PIBERIUS WILDE

 

AKA: CARROTS, FLUFF, BUN, OFFICER HIPPITY HOPP, DUMB BUNNY, SLICK, SLY FOX

 

SPECIES: RABBIT & RED FOX

 

SEX: FEMALE AND MALE

 

NOTES: AN INCREDIBLY INFLUENTIAL WONDER PAIR OF POLICE OFFICERS, NOW DETECTIVES, THAT HAVE FINALLY CONSUMMATED WITH WHAT THEY’VE BEEN FEELING FOR SO LONG WITH ONE ANOTHER. ARGUABLY, IT WAS ONLY INEVITABLE.

 

TAROT MAJOR ARCANA DESIGNATION: NO. VI, THE LOVERS

 

For they have accepted the change, have taken each other, and will face all that is eventual.

 

~

 

A fox awoke lying on his back in a bed that was unfamiliar.

 

Nick’s eyes opened, and he immediately forced them back shut. Where he possibly was now did not matter. There had been literally countless times he had woken up across this city, staring up into new canvases. Right at this moment, on this morning, he focused only his body, and tried to block out scent and sound. The (slightly) irrational thought of last night being all some sort of beautiful fever dream simmered in the pit of his gut right from the get-go. Because in his lifetime, it wasn’t the first vivid fantasy he had woken up from, a snapshot of a better life and better circumstance, the measure of cruelty from hoping for something better, for something more. And the fear of this being one more hope, one more dream of something worth it all, was almost beyond comprehension.

 

But before the fear of it all was confirmed of being God’s ultimate joke against him, something very warm and very soft shifted around on his stomach. Something that apparently wasn’t a part of his belly.

 

His eyelids snapped open and he looked down to see the blankets covering the whole of his body against the backdrop of an unfamiliar – Room. This was Judy’s room, because it just smelled so strongly of her, which made this her apartment, which made a shoebox look roomy. The sheets rose over his stomach like a small hill. It looked like Nick was pregnant. Fairly pregnant. With either more than one kit or one very far along kit, judging by the slope of the mass centered on his stomach.

 

One of his paws raised the sheet to peer under. A grey mass of fur was nestled in a loose ball on his chest, head towards his, her grey ears sloping back along her naked back, her puff of a tail completely still. Lifting up the sheet sucked out a gust of air, saturated with the delicious scent of female bunny, the sweet and savory smell of someone now so wonderfully and intimately familiar.

 

No dream. Only reality. The one that was indeed real, and was indeed for him. No joke from a cruel God. Only a gift from a chance meeting on a street with a former meter maid. The smile itself felt warm on his lips.

 

“Hey Judy,” Nick whispered. “Judy. Juu-dyyy. Juuuudyyyyy. You awake?” Of course she wasn’t, perhaps not entirely, but noting such an exact fact was a moot point. He wanted to see what she would do at hearing him call for her.

 

Her response was a muffled sigh, still mostly asleep, partly indifferent to the question. But some buried part of her mind turned on, at least halfway, trying to show attention to him. Her head slowly rotated to look towards him, eyes still fully shut, nose twitching so hard it began to lightly pull up on her upper lip.

 

Practically akin to the newly born, still blind, Judy began to wiggle and inchworm her way up his torso, nose and sense of touch her only guides to stay on course. The final destination for the moment, as Nick watched her small head disappear under his snout, was to bury her face in the crook of his neck. A single, gentle, open mouth kiss on the side of his neck later, and the small and quick sounds of a sleeping rabbit refilled his ears. He watched her butt and cotton tail do a small wiggle and trill to regain the optimally comfortable position against his body. She felt so warm, so pleasantly warm and amazing and soft and delicate and unique against him, that he wondered if they could just stay in her bed all day.

 

Sexual desire notwithstanding, this was surely fox heaven. Paradiso, Dante’s guide Virgil would have told the Fox. The Gates to the Kingdom, Saint Peter would have said.

 

Rays of golden morning light were beginning to filter into her abode from the window, their presence alone seeming to warm the air. Specks of dust drifted and floated in the light without direction or cause. The somewhat quickened sounds of a sleeping bunny’s breathing. The occasional twitch of her body and sighs of approval of their position. Nick settled on the posit that this was indeed Paradise.

 

The same feeling he had of waking up with her after a night on duty, before all of this, now multiplied in its magnitude by a hundredfold, layering across Nick. Without abandon or any real concern of consequence, he wiggled and maneuvered Judy back down to the end of his snout, nose pressing against the top of her head, and inhaled. If ‘beautiful’ had a scent all its own, it was hers and hers alone, and it was one of her many qualities he was beyond proud to relish in. It was one thing getting to just scent her when they sat side-by-side in morning briefing. Waking up with her? Apples to oranges. Partners to . . . well, still partners, but now in a much more complete and fulfilled sense.

 

His greeting to her was practically inaudible, a whisper laced in the comfort and joy of his sincerity. “Good morning, beautiful,” he purred, beginning to lick the top of her head and the base of her ears.

 

Judy stirred, eyes fluttering halfway open and pupils slowly moving back and forth, her senses trying to catch her mind up to speed. Coming out of the cocoon of deep sleep, all she sensed was fox. Fox on her tongue, fox in her nose, fox against her belly and paws. Fox that was wonderfully familiar. Judy slowly woke up, rare to her normally up bright and early form, to pure bliss.

 

She didn’t immediately mutter any words acknowledging him or the matter of the morning, but she did issue several small chitters and ‘mmmh’s at feeling the fox’s tongue smoothing over her fur and the pleasant heat seeping into her skin.

 

At hearing the delightfully innocent and happy sounds from her, Nick’s attentions towards the bunny increased. He took longer-lasting and broader strokes across the top of her head and over her fluttering eyes. The sleepy murmurs increased in their volume to high-pitched, happy eeps and giggles as the fox assaulted the bunny’s face with his tongue, intent on slicking back all the grey fur he could.

 

Within moments, she was fully awake.

 

“Nick! N-Nick!! Stop! Sta-stahp!” Judy pleaded as her partner continued to take numerous, eager licks across varying and sporadic spaces on her muzzle, nose, eyes, and cheeks. For just a moment longer, he ignored her, delighting in hearing the beautiful and ecstatic cries of happiness and eeps of excitement from her and at feeling those mercifully tiny paws bat and paw at him. Never once pushing hard enough in way of telling him to stop, but touching for the sake of just touching. Nick savored in feeling those small and agile paws run over his whiskers, gently grasp, then smooth away the fur on his head when pushing him away from her, only for him to easily maneuver back to the front of her face, tongue darting out and licking in random intervals and positions. He made sure to breathe out a little harder through his nose, seeing that with each puff of air against her face, her nose wrinkled and her eyes sealed shut and her ears sprung up and she spoke and chirred through smiles. It was all too beautifully evident that the bunny had absolutely no fear, no reservations about being so close to a fox.

 

Complete, total, unadulterated trust of him and comfort with him. Right from the depths of sleep and into the clawed paws of a hunter, there she still was, after their passion, now basking in the warmth of their light.

 

His best friend and partner.

 

What bliss.

 

The licking stopped, and as her giggling subsided, her eyes now wide open, tail ruffling – _truly bright-eyed and bush-tailed_ , he thought – and meeting the gorgeous, black-slitted emeralds of her partner, Judy chirped, “Good morning, handsome!” Her two paws stroked up and down his muzzle with slow attention, fingers gently rolling over and across his whiskers, feeling them spring back into position as she lightly plucked across them like guitar strings.

 

The way she said it to him, the way the words rolled so easily off her tongue, held both cadences of his old best friend and his new mate.

 

So, uncharacteristically of too cool for school Nick, he tripped over his words since they flew from his mouth without a second to calculate their value.

 

“Okay, so, really quick. That . . . that is just so incredible right there, hearing you say that to me, of all mammals and you are just amazing and I can’t believe how lucky I am like wow who would’ve thought con-artist fox to cop to partners – ” and he was stopped by feeling her lips press against his in a quiet, patient, and loving _I understand completely. This is just so incredible._

It gave him a moment to collect and streamline his thoughts, even though most of his mind’s processing power was being fully diverted to his lips. They broke contact, and now, Nick had a bit of a flow that wouldn’t make him sound completely like someone in high school after their first time.

 

“You are not going to believe the dream I had,” Nick started. He delivered the line with just the smallest bit of corniness. Judy groaned at hearing his set-up, one straight out of a rom-com, and perhaps it was his intention, but she smiled back and raised her eyebrows.

 

“Well, I confessed that I am in love with my best friend, and surprise-surprise, she told me that she was in love with me too, we had an amazing dinner, annnnnnnd since we already knew each other pretty well on the emotional front – being a bunny she can be incredibly emotional and I am trying to match her pace there – we practiced getting to know each other in the intimate sense.”

 

“In the intimate sense . . . ?” Judy asked through a smug smile, choosing to let go the mild jab at her emotions and let him continue.

 

Nick smiled back and shrugged in guilty admittance. “Yeah, we started with seeing what the other looked like naked. That was pretty great, because I never once thought that I’d find the rabbit form to be superior to all others. She went and blew my expectations out of the water. You would not believe the body this bunny has. And from there, we kinda practiced getting to know each other’s bodies. How we smell, how to touch, who likes sharp claws and who likes very, very telltale bunny enthusiasm, how to make the other moan and scream in ecstasy, that kinda thing. I now know why the French call it ‘la petite mort’. I swear I came so hard I thought I was going to pass away. Shoulda been there. It was THE best.”

 

“Got that right,” Judy sighed with a happy grin, “it was THE best. Funny you should mention all that, because something crazy similar happened to me, too.”

 

“That right?”

 

She rolled her eyes again, barely believing that she was playing along with this dumb trope, but was still happy to do so. “I confessed my heart to my best friend, and where I was slightly preparing for the worst, for him to lock up or for him to turn it away, he took me in with open paws. And opened himself up to me as well. Still means the world that you did that, Nick,” Judy quickly added in, briefly booping the end of her nose to his. “Wasn’t too painful pulling those splinters, was it?”

 

“I’m use to the pain from a tortured existence,” he teased back. “It was as you said, easy-peasy.”

 

“Anyway, turned out that not only is he my closest friend now partner in the fullest sense, one with an incredible and beautiful soul, butttt,” Judy trailed one finger down his left pectoral, across the soft cream-colored fur, “turns out he is just something else in bed. Like you said, that petite mort . . . woo boy. Haven’t felt something like that in _such_ a long time. This _fox_. He’s quite ferocious, quite the predator,” she teased, eyes starting to hood over, “a carnivore with a taste for bunny.”

 

“I have to stop you right there. Even though that is the cheesiest thing I’ve heard all week, I cannot possible deny it,” Nick admitted. “Yes. I am now relegating my title to The World’s Most Dashing Fox, the Carnivore Who Hunts Bunnies by Moonlight.”

 

Corny as his own comeback was, it still produced the desired giggling from his partner.

 

“Oh, of all the topics discussed on our date, there was one that I forgot to run by you,” Judy stated in a serious tone.

 

“No time like the present.”

 

“Do you, Nicholas Wilde, like apples?”

 

Nicholas Wilde stared back at Judy Hopps with a mask of slight bewilderment. Judy could practically see the smoke beginning to pour out from his ears. After a few moments of squinting at her and trying to really understand the question, Nick slowly nodded and answered, “Yeah . . . yeah I do like apples, preferably Granny Smith, bu – ”

 

“Well!” Judy interrupted, face and voice breaking into a manic grin and excited cheer, “I also managed to take my fox’s knot! Right up to the hilt! On my first try! And I came so hard I lost feeling in my legs and ears! So, Nicholas Wilde, I ask again! How do you like them apples!!??”

 

Once more, a tiny grey paw was raised up in front of his muzzle, begging for another high five.

 

Nick made a small note in his head. It was like a superpower of hers, just getting him to smile so wide and so earnestly his eyes pinched and his heart swelled. He liked that. A lot.

 

And truthfully, it had been an incredibly immense relief, as well as the ultimate form of sexual gratification, that yes, she had been able to take his knot. Right to the hilt, as she so succinctly put it. He thought about reiterating how his own end came with such ferocity and certainty that he actually had to remind himself to inhale then exhale as his soul left his body, but he’d be riding this high for who knows how long, and he could brag anytime and anywhere.

 

“I, Nicholas Piberius Wilde, do love those apples,” he answered with a high five, and then looped both arms around her, bringing his nose back to hers, meeting her eyes and nuzzling her face. “But I love this bunny far, far more than any apple.”

 

It was sweet to the point of inducing diabetes. But Judy couldn’t have cared, because she could clearly see in those brilliant eyes how much her best friend, and now lover, meant it. So it was no real surprise either that she smiled so hard she squinted and her lips met his again.

 

They each tasted so soft, so warm, so uniquely different yet pleasantly comforting. So expertly practiced and recalled to the other’s anatomy after their night together that their lips perfectly smoothed over one another’s, small sparks of pleasure crackling and firing off from their contact.

 

With a soft departure and a gentle exhale, they broke their engagement and just stared for a moment at each other.

 

She laid her head back down against his chest. One of Nick’s paws began to skirt around the base of her tail, trailing his claws against the soft fur of her lower back in tight, intimate circles.

 

With one ear draped across her back and the other against the top of his chest and up towards his neck, Judy listened. The strong, slow, and stable rhythm of his heartbeat, the deep and filling breaths he took, the warm and thick smell of violets and male musk that seeped out from his fur. All constant reminders of what he was, all indicators of the differences a predator had compared to prey.

 

It was only exciting, only thrilling, only comforting, all at once and all through the separate lenses of her perception that Judy saw Nick in all of his facets. Clever. Sarcastic. Street smart. Guarded. Former con-artist. Unknown, latent, and definitely legally questionable skillset. Reformed law officer. Growing, legally permissible skillset. Caring. Sexual. Aggressive. Protective. Cautious. Red fox. Predator. Carnivore. Male. Nick Wilde. The one and only.

 

And as they lay in the sounds of their breathing, Judy reached one paw up and felt her neck. She had no memory of removing her choker, and feeling the two shaved patches against her neck, she wondered if Nick had seen the wounds.

 

It both was and wasn’t her answer to that question when his other paw, lightly dragging his claws up her side, came up and brushed against her neck, against one of the marks. He did not pull away, stop or slow down at feeling what she honestly believed to be a violent blemish. His fingers continued with even speed up the side of her jaw, rotating to roll down the side of her cheek in an honest caress.

 

The motion put his claws within an inch of her eye, the black crescents that somehow always looked sharp. She heard and felt him exhale, a strong and more powerful force than any buck she had ever been with.

 

She figured now would be as good a time as ever to ask.

 

“Do my scars bother you?” The question sounded – and practically felt – almost pathetic in her quiet delivery. So much so that she winced the moment the ugly words left her mouth.

 

“No,” Nick answered from above her head. Sensing her quiet hesitation in saying anything back, Nick continued, “truly, I’m not. As awful as it is to say, in this line of work, I’m pretty sure you and I are going to collect our fair share of wounds. I just hope it’s only me that collects from here on out. You already earned your ‘badass’ battle scars.”

 

There was no hint of deceit in his voice, no swallowing of guilt or casual dodging of her question. Reassuring and noteworthy for her. “Be honest, you still angry at Strauss for it?”

 

She heard him snort. “Would I like to go and ‘mark up’ Strauss’ neck and face for it? Yes.” There was now nothing pleasant in his tone. Only hollow determination and one other emotion she couldn’t quite place. Something virulent and seething beneath the surface of his normal attitude. If she didn’t know him as well as she did, she’d be genuinely scared by the callous and cold honesty in his answer. But, she did know him well, and understood his anger, and appreciated his honesty to her by saying nothing and letting him continue.

 

“Yes I am, and yes I would. And in another life, in any other profession, I’d go find him and – ” Nick’s voice tapered off into a sigh, the guilt of admitting what he’d truly want to do to the ocelot too much to fully admit to his partner. At least not here, not naked in bed, bathing in the warmth of each other.

 

“But that ‘what if’ would be for another life, and that whole conversation is for another time, and another bottle of wine to uncork and unpack,” he told her, one paw reaching under her head and cupping the side of her face, the other drawing light zigzags in the fur on her back. “No, Judy. Your scars do not bother me. I admit, I was angry that I let it happen, and – ” Another strong inhale. “ – I think I still am mad . . . am disappointed in myself that I let it happen, but ultimately, I’m here with you. We are both safe. We both made it through alive.”

 

“Well,” Judy started, tone chipper and honest, “I want you to know that I don’t blame you for them happening to me. Honest. It certainly wasn’t your fault, really the opposite. You are the only reason I’m still top side of the soil, still trying to make the world a better place, Nick.” Both of her paws reached forward and up the sides of his collarbone, fingers combing through the thick and soft ring of orange fur that circled his neck. “Safe to say that we’ve saved each other’s lives a handful of times each, right?”

 

Nick gave a short bark of laughter. “Yeah, but who’s counting? To Hell and back with only minor flesh wounds.”

 

“You got that right.” Nick felt his bunny push her face into his neck, heard her sigh and felt the heat of her breath float past his fur and against his skin. “To Hell and back,” Judy quietly murmured into his fur, “I’d run through fire for you.”

 

“What was that?”

 

But Judy just hummed into his neck and kissed him again. To Nick, it was more than enough clarification.

 

“So, scars and just another day at the office aside . . . are you doing okay?” Judy asked him, her tone again suddenly a little more serious.

 

In one series of question, Nick’s tone changed from joking to partially serious to honest, and lastly to concern. “Me? My desire to go into max security and kick the shit out of Strauss otherwise? Of course! Why? Are you not?”

 

“No no no, I’m fine,” Judy replied. “I don’t think I’ve been this relaxed in God knows how long. Just . . . want to make sure you’re okay.”

 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Nick was beginning to (correctly) assume that there was something a little more to this line of questioning than asking about what side of the bed he woke up on.

 

“Because last night was a really big night for both of us, and I am going to stop you right there before you make a size joke regarding your penis, because Nick, I know you, and I know that one is on the tip of that tongue right now.”

 

Though she wasn’t looking at his face, her sixth sense (correctly) informed her that yes, he was about to make a ‘big dick’ joke, was now refraining, and was now grinning like he was back in middle school.

 

“Heh heh, you said ‘tip’,” he taunted back.

 

Judy couldn’t stop the snort from escaping her nose but prevailed onwards. Even while discussing nearly dying, and the sudden and new state of their relationship, he could find enough material to make a sex joke. “Nick, be serious! We went, in the course of twenty-four hours, from being just best friends, to best friends that went out on a romantic date, to best friends that scent marked each other, to sleeping with the other, and now . . . well, now we are definitely more than just best friends.”

 

His reply was instant and incredibly reassuring in its honesty. “Oh yeah, definitely more. Still best friends, but with more . . . romantic potential.” To say he sounded pleased with that conclusion was a pathetic understatement.

 

“Glad to hear we’re on the same page!” Judy chirped, before continuing on, “But back on track. I just want to make sure that you are doing alright, Nick. Between the change in our relationship and, you know, everything we talked about and everything we did, I know that it’s a lot.”

 

She paused for a moment, sorting out the jumble of words and feelings she wanted to spill all over him. “And I just want you to know that you don’t have to tell me if you are still sorting it all out or are still kinda unsure about me. Or about us.”

 

“We have been friends and partners for how long now? Of cou – ”

 

“Stop, Nick,” Judy interrupted him, cutting off his usual method of avoiding the unknown or the uncomfortable. “It’s going to be a little different now that our relationship has changed. We will eventually need to cross how we’re going to go about this at work. How families are going to work. Am I right in saying this is not a one night fling or just some cheap attempt at securing a friends with benefits deal?”

 

He actually propped himself up to look at her, and Judy knew her answer before he even said it. “This is not at all a one night thing. Far from that as you can get.”

 

”So you need to hear the rest of this, and that’s all I’m asking.”

 

Judy looked back up at him, and to no real surprise, saw that her fox was now as serious as the grave, taking in every word like his life depended on it. Both made it a point to hold eye contact.

 

“I just want you to know, that with absolute certainty, that I am here to stay, Nick. You are so loved and are so worth it to me that I would trudge through Hell and high water for you. I meant it, what I said last night. I take you for everything that you are: my partner, my best friend, mate, a fox, a predator, and the mammal I am hopelessly in love with. So while I’m thinking that you’re still in the process of piecing it all together and letting all those pieces fall into place, just know that I’m all in, that I am here for you, and that it’s perfectly okay to take your time putting it all together. Okay?”

 

She smiled at him at the end of her confession, paws still working over his face and smoothing over his fur. She did not once break eye contact with him as she spilled her heart for him. And it was as clear as crystal to Nick that it was the absolute and unedited truth. It was in her eyes that Nick saw something he had seen only once in his life before.

 

True, pure, and complete love. No strings or conditional motives stapled on.

 

She was right. He did need to hear it, because he and her both knew it was one thing to say all sorts of things in the throes of passion and physical ecstasy. It was something else entirely to wake up to the same mammal and still completely believe in those emotions, to still believe in all of those little promises fueled by the exchanges of intimacies.

 

Looking into her vivid eyes, carved from amethyst, Nick knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the feelings he had expressed to her last night were now only stronger, only shined brighter, and were completely and entirely true to their spoken words.

 

Some awful little words, muttered by a wild dog for a fox from the night previous, danced around his mind’s eye. ‘Conman you once were, cop you may be, but predator you are.’

 

_Yeah, well, this bunny certainly takes me for all of it, predator included, so suck on that titty, Jacoste._

 

Judy had said that she was hopelessly in love with him, which considering them as a pair, was only half right. To make it entirely right and make two halves into a complete whole, it needed mentioning that so was he.

 

But being new to having genuine love fully reciprocated, Nick found that he was unable to form the words to express the emotions tumbling around from heart to head. Things like _I love you so much it hurts_ and _I cannot even put into words how I feel when I look at you_ or _what have I done to deserve such happiness in the shape and form of you?_ and many variations and many other things he so desperately wanted to tell her danced on his tongue. But, in the past, under more one-sided circumstances, saying such things meant that he would somehow accidentally butcher their true meaning into something unflattering and crude.

 

So Nick settled with a nod, and tried to say ‘okay,’ but muttered, “I love you,” instead.

 

For both of them, it moved past ‘close enough’ and into ‘more than enough.’ They leaned in and kissed. In relationships, these kinds of intimacies and promises are sealed in more than just words.          

 

They are also sealed with licks across the face and across the top of a bunny’s face. Ones that produced more giggling and sighing. Much more sighing. Compared to the ones he woke her up with, these passes were a little slower, a little more deliberate in letting the humid heat seep into her skin.

 

Her giggling slowed into calmed exhales, and the smile that slowly spread across her lips cued him into where their morning was now definitely heading. Another tongue pass over her lips that lingered in lieu of a very wet and sloppy kiss.

 

“Any feeling of déjà vu?” Nick asked her.

 

“Mmmm . . . ” Judy smoothed one paw down and across his chest, fingers feeling the light-colored fur and sampling the light sheet of muscle beneath the skin. Nick noticed how her smile slowly faded into a barely parted, open mouth. Her eyes became hooded.

 

Nick inhaled, and caught something tantalizing in the air. Reflexively, he pushed himself up on both paws and sniffed the air, one ear giving a singular twitch.

 

“Wow. So, uh, one question I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now,” Nick started. “Is it true that you bunnies are always in heat? Because we haven’t even been up for fifteen minutes and I can already smell your ‘excitement’. I’m starting to think it’s a constant state and you have just been really good at hiding it from me.”

 

Judy hummed and grinned, the lust in her eyes radiating at him. Her entire body began to squirm and move on top of his. More contact if only for the sake of contact. “Wouldn’t my fox like to know . . . ” She leaned over and kissed him on the chest, another novel, open-mouthed sign of affection that he was starting to absolutely adore. Compared to the more innocent one he had received while she was still half asleep, this one had a little more force, her lips lingering a little while longer on his body.

 

“You said the head licking was déjà vu? It wouldn’t really be, unless you ‘checked’ on me again.” The rabbit began rotating herself to face downwards, taking the covers and throwing them to the end of her bed and revealing both of their naked bodies.

 

A wind reeking of male musk and violets filled her head and actually elicited a small gasp. Gross as it may be to admit it to others, coming from a bunny about a fox, his unadulterated scent, sweat, musk, pheromones, everything about him, she wished she could bottle it up to inhale whenever she so desired.

 

Judy kept moving until she was facing his toes, or more to the point, the tapered, ruby end of his sex that was starting to push out from the ring of his sheath. Likewise, Nick was within inches of her bare rear.

 

“You want me to just ‘check’ you? Please, you want me to bury my muzzle between your legs again,” he teased her.

 

Judy’s response was a brief ruffling of her cotton tail at him and pushing her rear slightly up, the movement spreading her legs and her cheeks to allow him a more complete view of her pink lips and the dimple nestled above them. A view that, as she heard from behind her, drew a sharp breath that warped into a low growl. So, that was a yes, she _did_ want his face between her thighs, and yes, he _did_ want to bury his face in her rear.

 

Judy gasped at feeling the wet and cold end wedge and wiggle in her, indulging in the sensation of his nostrils flaring against her swelling lips. Her scent was still the same aphrodisiac from the night previous, having lost none of the deeply arousing effect she had on his body and mind. Inhaling her directly resulted in more of his length pushing out from his body and towards her face, the swelling red cock stretching out the ringed opening of his sheath. At the base, the beginning of the knot began to swell on top of his testicles.

 

The act from her mate sent a deep and full-bodied throng of arousal radiating out from her center. Old instinctual hardwiring flew on. Her mate was examining her, examining her sex and checking to see if she was willing to mate, to breed. The additional wetness that blotted against his nose was more answer to that question, as was her attempts at putting her butt further into his face.

 

It was a bit more of a surprise for her when his nose traveled upwards and landed on her butthole. More surprise still to find that the sensation of his tongue smoothing over her pucker next actually felt . . . wonderful. She let out an embarrassingly stuttered moan at the unexpected attention.

 

“Mmmmmmokay . . . wow. I can get behind that,” Judy muttered in actual amazement.

 

She heard Nick snicker. “You said ‘behind.’ It’s official; I like everything about your behind.”

 

“Please shut up and . . . just keep going. I woke up kinda horny thanks to your tongue bath but didn’t want to smack you with that right out of the gate.”

 

“Kinda?”

 

“That was then, and now is so much stronger than then.”

 

“I appreciate the forwardness,” Nick said, kneading her rear with both paws, eyes bouncing from ruffling tail to butthole to pussy and repeating in that order. “Please feel free to make requests. I could never say no.”

 

Nick’s tongue snaked out from his mouth and pressed against the inverted **U** of her sex, against the swelling bud of her clit. Her body flinched and Nick delighted in hearing the sharp inhale, that when exhaled, came out as an honest moan. Both of his arms looped over the small of her back, paws coming to gently grip her sides, to keep her from wriggling out and away from his attentions. Wriggling was exactly what Judy was now doing at feeling his tongue press and snake against her.

 

Her taste made him salivate. Her scent, with every inhale, pulled his sex further from his sheath and made his body ache for attention only her body could provide. Everything about her was so much cleaner, so much more pure and just absolutely more delicious than any vixen or otherwise. So wonderfully unique, like bunny, like prey. The feeling of the soft and shallow fur on her cheeks rubbing against his face as he ate her out. The slow up-then-down motion of her hips as his tongue made wide and slow passes against her pink lips and her aching bud.

 

Judy’s original plan was to give Nick the same kind of treatment while he serviced her, but got as far as taking only the head of his cock before releasing it with an audible and wet _POP_ after one particularly exquisite pass against her middle _._ Her body’s sensitivity was dialed to eleven after the previous night, and the hot friction starting to wave out from her center was only allowing throaty gasps and moans. As Nick continued tonguing and kissing her now dripping labia, the wet smacking sounds and predatory moans and growls of joy further derailed any coherent plans of returning the favor.

 

So Judy resigned herself to the stressfully sweet, impending feeling of an approaching orgasm as Nick worked his magic on her and grabbed onto his thighs, putting her face next to his genitals. Every inhale, which Nick was making sure to force as many out from her as he could, was now met with a hit of the intense musk that seeped from his sex.

 

It definitely sped up the pleasing, tightening sensation starting at where Nick’s lips were currently sucking and kissing.

 

Feeling that he had spent enough attention on her now very swollen and dripping lips alone, Nick’s tongue pushed through and into her. He savored her reaction on all levels. The squeal of euphoric delight he heard. Her tunnel trying to clamp down on his tongue, desperate and eager for solid rigidity to stretch her out further. The deliciously savory taste of her pussy that made him snake his tongue in and out of her body to taste her over and over again. It produced more moans, more desperate pleas from his partner to ‘keep going,’ ‘don’t stop,’ and plenty of very enthused begging. But the icing on the cake, if it came down to specific wordplay, was her breathing his name, saying it with such reverence and want and passion.

 

Nick maneuvered his arms so that his forearms and elbows kept Judy mostly pinned to his chest. His paws began kneading her rear, pads and claws smoothing over and parting both fur and body. One thumb circled across the shallow fur around her sex and began working tighter and tighter circles towards the hole above his nose.

 

“Ohhh God yes yes yes right there just like that,” Judy instructed through several breaths, feeling one of Nick’s paw pads land and smooth over and over against the pucker above where his tongue was currently working.

 

Feeling his tongue slide quickly in and out of her, feeling his teeth and lips smoothing over her lips and clit, and feeling the increased massaging pressure against her butthole, all Judy could do as the wave built and built and drew more and more waking conscious power from her was choke out his name and small encouragements.

 

“Oh . . . Oh God,” she breathed.

 

Nick felt her top half bow up from his waist, the slope of her front arching up with her ears laying flat against her back.

 

“Oh my god oh godddd Nickkkk.”

 

He felt her legs go rigid around his head and neck. Her scent became thicker, coating his windpipe and lungs in her deep arousal.

 

“Please don’t stop so close I’m going to cum don’t stop don’t stop!!”

 

Nick felt her pussy tent open around his tongue, then squeeze shut on him, desperate for firmness and form to better weather the climax. He both felt and tasted the flood of the orgasm as it tore through his partner’s body, the effect twisting Judy half up to the left and over his leg like a puppet controlled with only one control bar.

 

Judy saw spots of white light as her body crested over the plateau and into the hot and writhing ocean of her orgasm. Her screams came out choked. It was almost uncomfortable, both in its intensity and in how Nick refused to let her writhe with free abandon on top of him. She pressed her rear further into Nick’s face, desperate to feel more of his tongue, his paw pads, teeth, and lips against her sex. For the next several seconds, Judy rode her partner’s muzzle, and God bless him, he kept his mouth, tongue, and thumb working on both of her holes to maintain and strengthen her high.

 

Her body’s fluids began running down the sides of his muzzle, dripping off his whiskers, and matting around her pussy and butthole.

 

Judy let out a series of high-pitched whines, some beginning with ‘ _Ni_ ’ and ending in body-rattling screams. The feeling of her entire body on his face, having pushed free from his hold and now holding onto his chest with white knuckled fists, only served to further enliven both his body and ego.

 

After feeling Judy’s body go from rigid to fluid, with as little grace as possible, Judy slumped off her lover’s face and flopped onto his body, head landing on the top of his pelvis and ears trailing flat against his legs. Again, Nick was now presented with the world’s best view of her bare rear, which was now dripping onto his chest and still flexing in bliss.

 

Nick gave her two gentle pats on one cheek. Her tail ruffled. “Good butt.”

 

“S-shut up,” Judy weakly waved back in what could barely be called an attempt at swatting his paws away from her behind.

 

“So, how angry would you be at me if I started poking your face with my dick while singing Lady Gaga’s ‘Pa-pa-pa-pa-pokerface’?”

 

He heard her snort in way of unexpected laughter, and Judy began crawling towards then over his still erect organ, pushing between his legs and tail towards the end of the bed. With both front paws, Judy plowed the blankets down into a pile at the very end of her bed.

 

Getting only on her knees, Judy’s head stayed down at the mattress and her butt went up.

 

Nick was going to ask ‘ _I guess you don’t want me to serenade you with the sweet sounds of my rendition?_ ’, but what actually came out through a partially amazed whisper with very wide eyes was, “oh sweet god above and the holy ghost thank you.”

 

Judy responded by waving her butt back and forth, tail twitching. The look she threw back at him had no smile, only hooded eyes that conveyed such strong desire that it seeped into pure lust.

 

Nick took her up on the offer.

 

There’s something to be said about enjoying the sensation of full body contact, and the realization of just how wonderful it was pooled across Judy as Nick practically smoothed himself over top of her, his limbs carrying his chest then stomach across her butt then back, head and nose down at her fur, inhaling the sweat that had built up after her first climax. The heat of his body passed so easily from coat to coat; the more powerful and prominent murmurings of his lungs and heart working sent soothing waves down to her bones.

 

That almost relaxing feeling of comfort was immediately eclipsed by feeling something very hard and very warm brush up and rub against her belly. So Judy began desperately trying to wiggle her butt down and around his length to push herself onto him, hoping that her slicked entrance caught and guided him in.

 

One of Nick’s paws came down next to her head to help in bracing his weight. The other slid across her belly and towards one of her boobs, two clawed digits quickly finding then tweaking one nipple.

 

Her full-bodied flinch, accompanied with a high-pitched EEP! at feeling the pleasure spark out from her chest, wiggled them both enough that the head of his cock lined up with her still soaked entrance.

 

_Oh thank god thank Godddd!!_ Judy thought, rolling her hips back and awaiting that –

 

– _empty_ feeling. Which was the exact opposite of what she wanted. It took her a moment to realize that instead of indulging them both and pushing into her, Nick – that smartass fox – had pulled back with her, keeping only outside surface contact between his sex and hers.

 

She did happen to catch his sharp inhale at feeling his head slide against her wet lips.

 

“Oh come onnnn hahhhh Nick,” Judy whined, desperately trying to force herself back and successfully get _onto_ him, “we really gonna do this??”

 

She could practically feel his smirk above her head, which somehow made her both more agitated and hornier all at once.

 

“Call it stroking my ego, just for a moment,” he whispered into one ear, his free paw now massaging her dewlap and running up her throat, claws sending very static lines of electricity across her skin. Her center was now clearly aching again, demanding that she find the obvious part of him and push it inside of her.

 

“Tell me how horny you are,” he whispered.

 

“Nick – gahh – please . . . ”

 

“I know you want me,” he taunted as he began purring above her, “I can clearly smell it. Buttttt I just want to make sure you want this as much as I do.”

 

Lightly, ever so painfully in the sweetest way lightly, Nick nibbled on her ear, eliciting a squeal from his bunny. “And I want this very, _very_ badly,” he growled.

 

“Nick, I gahhh damnit! I am ready to start f - fingering myself,” Judy managed through his incessant teasing. “Unless . . . ”

 

“Unless what?” It almost sounded like a threat, or more like a demand he needed to hear the obvious answer to.

 

“Unless I feel you buried inside of me,” Judy breathed out, turning her head up to meet his. The sight of her open mouth, lips parted due to panting and to her evident desire to start with him, broke him from his teasing.

 

The kiss and first thrust in were paired at the same time. Judy could only scream into his mouth at finally – _finally_ – feeling filled by her partner again, at feeling so stretched out by him that her legs almost gave out. Screaming in pure joy was the only way to keep some semblance of conscious thought in play. More so that her mental release into his mouth was met with an equally excited growl and full-bodied shudder from him at feeling his length fill her.

 

Once more the feeling of kissing so many exquisitely sharp teeth, feeling their edges and points ghosting over her lips and tongue, drew the squeal into a moan of dark delight.

 

She felt his thighs press flat against hers, felt the thickening bulge at the base of his cock press against her folds, felt every inch of him in her and against her. The almost jarring feeling, having been only experienced once the night before, made her acutely aware of just how wonderful Nick smelled right from the get-go, and how it repeatedly added to their lovemaking.

 

In between the first thrust and the second, Judy realized that she’d take sweaty Nick over showered Nick any day. The rich and heady scent of violets was vastly superior to the stifling scent of artificial soap.

 

That thought was subsequently lost at feeling him thrust all the way back into her, growling above her head as he did. The second motion in was met with far less resistance but more tightness, her body’s wetness having spread down and around his dick to grip him as much as possible.

 

It made for the best possible combination of sensation against him: a hot, soaked, slick resistance that somehow managed to take him with greed.

 

“God Damn, Judy,” he breathed. “Just . . . Ffffuck me, that . . . is . . . amazing.”

 

In the next thrust out then quickly back in, the distance was closed quicker by her pushing her hips back to meet him. The previous night’s tentative starting pace was abandoned. He knew she could take his length, as did she, and the thrusts in and out of her starving body became quick. His length found itself plunged into her over and over again.

 

Judy could only moan and yelp at the sensations of being taken in the most primitive and basic of senses, to feel someone so completely male be so completely enraptured in her body and the mind-shattering pleasure their mating provided for them both.

 

Once again, the room began to saturate with the very heady scent of musk and pussy, with the sounds of a gasping and begging bunny and a growling and almost snarling fox. The repeating sounds of furry thighs colliding against furry thighs were accompanied by the slapping of his balls against her swollen hood.

 

Her world jarring from the fast-paced rutting, Judy turned to the side. She could clearly hear him panting, and looking to her right, saw his head just above hers, his long tongue hanging from his maw and eyelids fluttering at feeling his partner in the most intimate of ways.

 

Nick caught her gaze and made his hips fully press against hers, driving the blissful ache as deep into her as he could. The brief stop was where the fox took the opportunity to lean in and give her a long, wet lick against her neck and face, his tongue adding more voltage to the charge his fevered attentions were drawing. His tongue briefly pulled across her lips, a soaked and passionate kiss between two entirely different lovers.

 

And after that one pass, after letting her absorb both the heat and wetness from the pseudo kiss and the hot and stretching sensation of his length inside her sex, the passionate rutting between fox and bunny continued.

 

With every quick thrust into and out, the burning coil of her impending orgasm, nestled deep within her, began to loosen and unspool right at the edges of her pussy and right at where the head of his cock kept stopping with each complete thrust in. Judy felt the wave gaining momentum, gaining stamina and strength that would soon completely overwhelm her. It was going to happen again, the feeling of her mind starting to stretch apart in harmony with her burning center. Her body thrusting greedily back onto his organ, desperate to keep stretching herself out and ironing out the throbbing orgasm that needed finalizing, was partly on basic instinct alone.

 

Several actions from her mate, none spoken with words, cued her in that he was about to cum.

 

The rhythm changed from being long and full-bodied strokes from head to base to Nick fully pushing his length as deeply as he could into her and thrusting in short and fast bursts. The painfully hot mass of his knot kissed completely against her pussy, her lips wetting the aching mass to slip inside. Right beneath his twitching knot, her clit, the hood stretched tight around and across it, physically throbbed as the spring wound impossibly tight, as the wave began to crest, as the coil began to slip free.

 

“Don’t – oh fuck oh FUCK Yesss – don’t you _dare_ try to pull out,” she breathed between harsh gasps and pleading moans. “I wa-want to feel your knot inside of m-me.”

 

Nick couldn’t form words. His mind was beyond that now. He could only grow. Her final words were gasoline to the fire.

 

“I want to feel you f – fuck! – filling me,” Judy whispered.

 

Hearing that, both of them wiggled their hips in counter directions, Nick thrusting forward and Judy pushing backwards, and with a soaked _POP!_ his knot slipped completely in and her sex swallowed him.

 

And then the supernova-grade fireworks started.

 

“YES! Oh FUCK Yes!!” Judy screamed, the cables of building excitement finally snapping and fraying apart. Her vision spotted and a sensation that was almost debilitating, something that made her muscles spasm and made her forget how to breathe, tore across her entire being. The feeling of his knot pushing in all directions at the front of her pussy, coupled with his twitching length sunk completely into her, had Judy Hopps riding out the almost terrifyingly splendid orgasm, grasping onto the two orange limbs planted firmly ahead of her.

 

Above her, her partner etched in four new carvings into her mattress as multiple ropes were shot into her body, his claws slicing through fabric. The one thought, the only thought, on Nick Wilde’s mind was the command from the hindbrain, the one screaming that if there was one pleasure in life, it was mating her. And feeling his body empty itself into her welcoming sex, at feeling her own organ tent and contract around him in all efforts to further milk every drop out of him, Nick Wilde happily rode out the wave with her.

 

A minute passed, and after that minute, her apartment still found itself housing a fox knotted and mounted over a bunny. Both panting, both smiling, and both grinning like delighted idiots.

 

After several minutes, the pair relaxed a little more, both sitting back with Judy half sitting, half kneeling at Nick’s waist while he adjusted the connection between them.

 

Basking in their satisfaction, Nick saw it.

 

“Hey, I didn’t know you had an iPad. You mind if I put on Netflix in a sec?” Nick asked as he reached towards her nightstand, the movement of his hips dragging her rear in a mutual direction. “I’ll even let you give a watch suggestion, which I may or may not agree to.”

 

The smooth train of thought in Judy’s head, the one beginning to get back on track after the derailing orgasms, came to a screeching halt. _I didn’t know you had an iPad . . ._

 

“ . . . Neither did I,” Judy drawled out, turning her head back to face him, her eyes widening now to see Nick picking up a personally unfamiliar piece of technology off her nightstand. It took Nick a minute to process what she said.

 

Both of their exhausted and pleased stares turned to confused glances at each other and at the iPad in Nick’s paws.

 

Judy heard a mammal walking down the hall, towards her door. Probably a neighbor, or something equally as unimportant as the matter of the mysteriously appearing iPad.

 

“This . . . isn’t yours?” Nick asked, one ear twitching as he too heard the approaching mammal down the hall. One of the building’s many tenants, an errant thought told him.

 

Judy shook her head at his question, mouth slightly open in complete confusion. “And it’s clearly not yours, unless you somehow managed to sneak that back in here during last night,” she insinuated, one arm lifting up in open palm bewilderment.

 

The mammal that was walking down the hallway came to a stop that made both of their heads turn towards her door. Right where the footsteps came to a halt.

 

Sometimes, the universe lobs softballs, pitches that are too easy to pass up, too easy to handle. Other times, it sends a fastball over the plate with everything it’s got, with a comet’s tail burning fast behind it.

 

Today, at this very moment, the universe figured it was high time for a fastball.

 

The doorknob jiggled, then spun, and the door to the apartment swung open. Neither of them had gotten up at any point to lock the door, and a female rabbit came walking in.

 

Judy’s sister that had helped her prep for her date, Jackie Hopps, walked headlong and clueless into the apartment. Her head was down with her gaze fixed on her phone, the white cord snaking out from the bottom of the device and splitting into earbuds nestled in the openings of her ears. She had yet to notice them.

 

To reiterate: time for a fastball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing funner than getting walked in on!
> 
> Remember Jackie Hopps? Judy's sister that prepped her for her date in the first chapter? Well, if you don't remember her, that's alright. Nick doesn't know her. But he is about to in a minute. Part 2 will soon be released in, i don't know, roughly 24 hrs? Maybe 48? Point is, it's finished so sometime in the next day or two!


	7. NO. VI: THE LOVERS (PART 2: WE ARE SURE)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, this is not the cheesy set up to a smutty story where a handsome fox bangs two sisters simultaneously. Although in another universe it definitely could be . . . i digress. Here you go.

NAMES: JUDITH LAVERNE HOPPS & NICHOLAS PIBERIUS WILDE

 

AKA: CARROTS, FLUFF, BUN, OFFICER HIPPITY HOPP, DUMB BUNNY, SLICK, SLY FOX

 

SPECIES: RABBIT & RED FOX

 

SEX: FEMALE AND MALE

 

NOTES: AN INCREDIBLY INFLUENTIAL WONDER PAIR OF POLICE OFFICERS, NOW DETECTIVES, THAT HAVE FINALLY CONSUMMATED WITH WHAT THEY’VE BEEN FEELING FOR SO LONG WITH ONE ANOTHER. ARGUABLY, IT WAS ONLY INEVITABLE.

 

TAROT MAJOR ARCANA DESIGNATION: NO. VI, THE LOVERS

 

For they have accepted the change, have taken each other, and will face all that is eventual.

 

~

 

It clicked in both Nick and Judy’s horrified minds at roughly the same time.

 

_It’s her iPad._

 

Judy continued to think, _Oh shit oh shit oh SHIT Jackie left her iPad here last night it’s here and it’s hers and she swung by to get it before taking the train back home!!_

 

Nick continued to think, _Awesome . . . That has got to be one of Judy’s siblings. And a sister, no less! This is how I’m first introduced to the Hopps family. Mounted and knotted at the rear to beloved city hero and first bunny cop Judy Hopps. While I’m still cumming in her. Fan-fuckin-tastic. Great first impression, Slick. I’m sure they’ll have a battery of loaded 12 gauges at the ready if I ever show my face in Bunnyburrow._

 

Both also made note that the blanket, in their excitement, had been pushed down to the end of her bed, too far away to just reach, grasp, and throw over their exposed bodies. Separated, it would’ve been easy to get and hide themselves.

 

Separated being the key word there.

 

The pair watched as Jackie’s face went from relaxed nonchalance to eyes pinching shut and nose twitching hard enough to pull off from her face. It was no doubt Jackie’s reaction to unknowingly inhaling a hotboxed atmosphere of female rabbit excitement and male fox musk. Something likely familiar and something definitely not familiar. A scent composed of strong violets, pussy, and two horny mammals. Something the poor doe had not been expecting.

 

Jackie’s face warped, eyes blinking away what were likely tears and nose wiggling so hard it looked like it was vibrating, and then she looked up to meet two horrified pairs of eyes.

 

One completely familiar and one completely and entirely unfamiliar.

 

One a female bunny and one a male –

 

“F-fox . . . ” Jackie practically breathed out through a terrified whisper, the iPod dropping from her paw and pulling her ear buds free and to the floor.

 

Jackie’s immediate reaction was to put as much distance between herself and the predator as possible. Without any real conscious consideration or thought, Jackie went flat and back against the door she had just opened, sealing the room shut, now containing three occupants. In her very shocked stupor, the thought to move – at all – was completely eclipsed by sensory overload.

 

The sound of the door slamming shut, along with sensing a new mammal in the room, one that was not welcomed, made Nick’s body respond accordingly in the most primitive of ways. It wasn’t something he consciously thought to do, but it was the instinctual reaction of a male fox whose territory and privacy had just been breached. Judy was pulled slightly back, very quickly, as Nick’s body leaned forward over her, both of his front paws coming down past her face and effectively shielding her from unwelcomed eyes.

 

Due to: 1. Being male, 2. Being a fox, and 3. Being currently tied to his mate, the hindbrain in Nick translated Jackie’s interruption as a primal act of aggression, a blatant disregard for his territory and partner. His body responded accordingly by pupils thinning, hackles raising, and producing more musk. None of which he or anyone wanted.

 

A moment of horrifying and embarrassing silence passed. And then the screaming started.

 

More or less from all three mammals at once.

 

Jackie: “WHAT THE FUCK!? Is that a fox!? Did you OHMYGOD your date was a fox and you fucked him!? He saw your underwear and beneath it!? What the shit Judy I texted you and I got nothing in return I thought it would just be you!! Why didn’t you leave a sock on the door!? Are you okay!? Did he hurt you!?”

 

Nick: “Yes – yes – yes I am a fox please don’t scream please stop screaming! Everything’s fine! Just – Goddamnit! Just please look at the floor for a second!”

 

Judy: “Blankets! Grab blankets! Please grab blankets!”

 

As Jackie continued firing off several expletive-laden questions of shock, embarrassment, and what was surely a mix of confusion and fear, Judy lunged forward to come within inches of their cover.

 

But due to a certain anatomical part of Nick aptly named for fastening and securing two or more separate things, Judy came to an unexpected and shockingly painful stop, fingers splayed out towards her blankets. Nick’s mouth snapped open and his eyes pinched shut in wordless agony, fingers bending and curling towards his paws.

 

For a brief moment, Nick and Judy forgot about first familial impressions and the high they were definitely no longer riding; the pain at their genitals demanded (arguably) far more immediate attention. Jackie stopped her frantic line of questioning at the unfamiliar and unexplained sight.

 

Her sister, who had undoubtedly been taking it on all fours from rabbits’ longtime natural predator, seemed . . . attached to the fox. Literally. Like physically attached to him by the way their movements seemed completely dependent on the other’s cooperation. She jerked forward, he followed, and both were now . . . in agony?

 

That made no conceptual sense . . .

 

But that was for another moment to ponder over, because right now at this very moment, her sister was currently in bed with a fox that she had clearly slept with and had failed to look at her damn phone or even lock her door and now Jackie’s head was swimming in the very intimate and aroused scents of her sister and a male fox.

 

Jackie’s heart was in her throat and she was actually having trouble moving. While most of her family had gotten used to the idea of foxes, including contracting one for employment, the idea of foxes being close friends – let alone anything more – was (terrifyingly) novel for many of them. Her included.

 

Jackie opened her mouth to (probably) continue with the panicked cries, but Judy was able to catch her off guard by imitating their mother.

 

Putting one paw flat up, fingers tightly held together. Universal in the Hopps compound for ‘shut the hell up’. Often issued and respected by their matriarch. Again, almost entirely out of reflex, Jackie did as such and her mouth went shut.

 

“Jackie,” Judy started, trying to get her voice moved from the ‘still in pain and still very embarrassed’ tenor and into the ‘angry and in control’ tenor, “first thing’s first. Yes, I am fine – ”

 

“He hasn’t hurt you!?” Jackie interjected, eyes still very wide with panic.

 

Both Nick and Judy responded in unison. “No!”

 

Feeling both of their unflinching stares at her forced Jackie’s mind to slow down, if not by a mile or two. He had not hurt her. Her sister was fine, save for the weird and still unexplained circumstance in which she seemed physically tied to him. But they would get to that. Because her sister was alright.

 

Jackie slowly began speaking. “Okay . . . okay, alright. Everything’s . . . a-okay. You are okay.”

 

Nick picked up on the syntax of that last part. Said with such sincerity and concern, meant directly from one sister to the other. The circumstance aside, and what was probably going to follow, he couldn’t fault the Hopps daughter for her worry.

 

And then the sister’s eyes – Jackie’s – shot up to meet Nick’s.

 

A lifetime of public speciesm towards his own kind instantly prepared Nick for the eventual, the soul-killing glints of loathing he was about to see from maybe one of many future in-laws, for him to see what any country bunny would think of him. He waited for the fear. For the disdain.

 

For the hate.

 

And after a few seconds of carefully holding her gaze, Nick saw nothing of the sort. No loathing or malice in her eyes. There wasn’t outright fear, but there was definitely a very strong prey-esque . . . ‘caution’ floating in the pools of her eyes. Her nose was wiggling and he could practically see the tendons in her neck and at her wrists and ankles. Her body was no longer flat to the door, but relaxed she was not. Ready to bolt if he, the fox, so much as sneezed.

 

Okay, so maybe not the exact definition of primal prey fear and definitely not hatred or disdain, but definitely very strong caution and a mixture of surprise and embarrassment. He could work with that. It stung nowhere nearly as painful as the aforementioned conditions he had been expecting.

 

Nick’s police officer intuition offered the only appropriate solution to this kind of situation: de-escalation.

 

Nick slowly raised one paw up, palm out towards the unintended guest as well. He flinched upon realizing that her eyes weren’t really following his paw, but the sharp claws atop each digit. One of those moments he envied cats and their ability to tuck away their built-in weaponry. Beneath him, Judy tentatively leaned forward, and Nick’s hips went with her as his mate gathered an armful of blankets to at least cover their bodies.

 

“Easy . . . Everything is just like you said. We are all okay,” Nick slowly drew out. “I know that it must be a bit of a shock seeing – ” Nick motioned to himself, “a fox, of all mammals, in bed with your sister, and this is probably a double whammy for you. Not only walking in on her date and her getting to know him a little better, but seeing that the date is not a rabbit too.”

 

Jackie slowly nodded in agreement. “Just a fox getting to know a bunny, huh?” she breathed out.

 

“Yeah, well, Judy and I already know each other pretty well,” Nick started, and then stopped at seeing Jackie’s eyes go a little wider.

 

Nick thought: _Well, her figuring out now that I’m her partner on the force should be a good thing . . . right?_

 

Jackie thought: _OH MY GOD That fox is her partner?? That’s the infamous ‘Nick Wilde’ she’s always bragging about?? Jesus Christ in a birchbark canoe . . ._

 

“Hooooooo boy,” Nick exhaled. “Uhm, yeah. Well. I’m Nick Wilde, Judy’s partner on the force and now – ”

 

“Now mates,” Judy interjected. “Cause, ehm, since everything’s out in the open now, might as well say that scent marking did happen. And we’re still partners. Newly made detectives as well. Jackie, meet Nick.” With one still shaking arm, Judy thumbed behind her. As if their introduction needing visual aid.

 

Both mammals looked to Judy’s sister, desperate for her to either fill in the conversation or do anything other than stare and continue making this encounter as humiliating as possible.

 

She was able to get her name out. “Jackie Hopps.”

 

“Okay, Jackie?” Nick asked, practically straining his eyes to forcefully dilate his pupils as much as possible to convey ‘cute and harmless’ as opposed to thin **I** ’s, which to a bunny definitely conveyed ‘aggravated and deadly’.

 

“I need to tell you something, and I would deeply appreciate it if you just listened before you start screaming again.”

 

Judy looked back at Nick, and Jackie gave a small and unsure nod.

 

“You have no reason to be afraid of me,” Nick deadpanned. “Right now, my muscles are on fire and I’m ready to collapse because the adrenaline is starting to wear off and I just want to sit and talk and work this out.”

 

Nick paused to let the words sink in before slowly continuing.

 

“I need to move. I don’t want you to have a heart attack or think I’m moving to do anything to anyone. Just gonna sit back on the bed with Judy. We three really need to chat before you go running back home with the wrong idea. And both Judy and I are in no position to get up and move around in a neat and orderly fashion. No one wants any more scary – or painful – surprises.

 

“And – and I know this is certainly shocking, but you and I both know that you’re not afraid of me, right?” Nick said this in the way an adult consoles a kit about their irrational fear of anything mundane.

 

Jackie made to answer, but had to swallow first to clear her throat. The room was just saturated with his scent. And some of her sister’s. But mostly his.

 

“N-no,” Jackie cautioned, “not afraid. I will admit that – it’s a little nerve-racking being in this position and I am still wrapping my head around it and I never knew foxes could smell so . . . _strongly_ like holy Christ, dude . . . it’s not like you stink but _wow_ you just _smell_ so – ”

 

“Yeah yeah yeah okay thank you, I get it,” Nick tried to politely steer away from that topic, starting to grin but forcing his lips to a concealing black line.

 

“ – but it’s – I’m okay, if Judy’s okay,” Jackie finished with a slow nod. Nick mimed her with an exhale and sat back, his connection pulling Judy with him and into his lap, forming a lump with two different heads peering out from their blankets. The relief of no longer holding still for everyone’s sake was like finishing an 800-meter sprint.

 

“Oh yeah,” Judy breathed, “just verrrrrry embarrassed and coming down off a rollercoaster of emotion and – other things – that I was not entirely ready to ride at this very moment. But I promise I am okay.”

 

“Alright, okay, thank goodness,” Jackie said, head slowly nodding and looking back and forth between the heads. “So, seeing that you two are still very, uh, ‘busy’, I’m just going to grab my iPad and head on out.”

 

“Jackie, there is no way that I can let you go home after just seeing this,” Judy said as one arm snaked from under the blankets to wave at herself and Nick. “Please, Nick’s right. We need to talk this out because I knew this was going to be a big deal, and I want us all to handle it like adults and make sure everyone’s on the same page.”

 

Jackie considered the proposal, and arrived at the same conclusion. Yes. This was a rather . . . big deal, all things considered. Certainly was a shit-ton more monumental than walking in on her with another bunny, the fox had been correct there. “Alright, I have a few minutes before I need to go.”

 

“Can you give us about half an hour?” Nick asked with a pleading face. “I agree with Judy, but I also think we should really be doing this clothed and decent.”

 

Jackie’s eyes pinched and she shook her head. “Yeah, that’s not going to work. My train leaves in half an hour and it’s the last one out for the weekend. I have to be at the homestead tomorrow morning.”

 

A pause, then Jackie’s face changed (a merciful break from the horrified/slightly judging/definitely embarrassed face she had adopted so far) and she asked, “Also, what do you mean you need half an hour? Why can’t you get dressed now? It’s not like I can step outside for a moment while you two get dressed.”

 

Slowly – so painfully slowly as a renewed wave of embarrassment prickled over his body – Nick closed his eyes at the realization. Judy, it seemed, was definitely the only bunny in the room that knew about canine reproductive anatomy.

 

“I am not – I cannot – explain that to your sister,” he muttered.

 

“Can’t explain what to me?” Jackie asked, curiosity coloring her tone more and more.

 

“That’s . . . more for a ‘sister-to-sister’ talk, Jackie,” Judy muttered.

 

“Ohhh, we are sooo far beyond the ‘sister-to-sister’ label at this point, Judy,” Jackie muttered back, nodding to Nick. “Not only have I walked in on you and your ‘hot date’, but I now realize that your ‘hot date’ is also your partner on the force.” And in a tinier voice, Jackie quickly followed up with, “And he’s very red and smells kinda scary and is kinda aggressive looking.”

 

“I don’t smell scary,” Nick stated a little sorely, then looked to Judy. “Do I?”

 

“No, sweetie, you don’t,” Judy reassured.

 

“Debatable,” Jackie muttered, before speaking up, “So, you wanted to talk, and here we are. Talking. Me standing awkwardly at your door on a time crunch and you two naked under the covers and unable to move or dress yourselves for reasons still unknown to me.”

 

“We’ll get there,” Judy responded, now getting frustrated at the retreading of established ground. “And Jackie, having this conversation through the door with you defeats the purpose of ‘talking’. All fights are resolved muzzle-to-muzzle, just like back home. So mammal-to-mammal it is. So . . . first thing’s first . . . ”

 

And there, Judy Hopps’ train of thought, once more, came to a complete stop. Because what on Earth was she supposed to say now? _So, by the way, best friend and partner is now mate and partner. And yes, he’s a fox. You just walked in on me screwing my best friend who is also a fox. You’re okay with that, right? Like, morally and culturally?_

 

So, in typical Judy fashion, she thought ‘fuck it’ and just winged it to see what stuck.

 

“Jackie, just so I can get an early read on where this will be going, what do you think of Nick and I?”

 

Jackie crossed her arms, an unamused look now washing over her face. “Aside from the fact my first memory of Nick is him mounted over you, still panting in what I can only assume to be post-coital bliss?”

 

Nick groaned and resumed hiding his face with both paws.

 

“Jackie, please. You know exactly what I mean,” said Judy.

 

“You’re asking me to give my honest, heartfelt impression of a male who not only have I only met once, but have met only once while he was butt naked and right after you two were done screwing?”

 

“Look, I know it’s one-sided and you haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him yet, but it’s what you’ll be going home with!” Judy exclaimed. “And you know our family. It won’t even be ten seconds before two of them, then all of them, realize why you’re responding to questions with one-word answers. They will pry it out from you in under a minute. I can hear it already. ‘Alright alright alright! Remember that fox she’s always talking about? Her partner on the force? First fox cop and all? Well, after nearly dying on the job, turns out she’s sleeping with him.’ Or something like that.”

 

Jackie, so much like her sister that Nick saw a brief parallel between siblings, opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out, so she promptly shut it. After a moment of mulling it over, Jackie conceded and slowly nodded in reluctant agreement.

 

“Good point. So, if you really want to know, I will need to hear it from you first,” Jackie started. “What do you think of him?”

 

To Nick, that open-ended question was just that. A question with a simple answer.

 

To Judy, it actually allowed her to say a multitude of disguised quips to her sister; phrases like ‘he’s sweet’ and ‘certainly fun in bed’ were more or less indirect ways of communicating ‘likely one and done’ between female members of the Hopps household.

 

So, to make her intent with the fox to her sister explicitly clear, Judy declared, “I am completely and hopelessly in love with this stupid fox.”

 

Jackie’s brow furrowed. There . . . was no misconstruing that.

 

“How – how do you know you’re sure?” she responded.

 

“Remember, all those years ago, that little thing I once said about wanting to become a police officer?”

 

Jackie’s eyes went wide and her mouth parted in actual shock. “You’re _that_ sure . . .?”

 

“Oh yeah. I am absolutely _that_ sure,” Judy said with such honest faith and conviction that even Nick looked down at her in partial amazement.

 

“Well, how do I know that _he’s_ that sure?” Jackie exclaimed. “I know you, and if you’re comparing your romantic intent with him to your dream that you have _never_ once stopped reminding us of, then that’s as serious as it’s getting.

 

“But I don’t know anything about him, Judy! For all I know, this could all just be a . . . ” Jackie waved both paws in the air, searching for the least damaging phrase “ . . . hot fling! And I don’t mean to downplay it, but come on! This is the morning after, and right after round two we’re talking about, for Carrot’s sake! What if he’s not sure – ”

 

“Pretty sure I am, though.”

 

In front of Nick, two grey bunny ears sprung up in surprise at hearing a voice from behind her. Around her waist, Judy felt both of his paws, claws and pads, wrap around her stomach.

 

Her voice was ringing with the ferocity of choir bells in his mind.

 

_I am absolutely that sure._

 

“I am completely and entirely sure about her,” Nick said, almost to himself instead of to the rest of the room. And just like earlier, when it was just him having that ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with Judy over candles and food and across the backdrop of the city, in a rare moment of the life thus far of Nick Wilde, all of the painful and honestly terrifying truths came spilling out before he could check them with his trademark conmammal’s grace and pose.

 

“There has never been a moment in my life where I knew I was so goddamn sure. I love Judy Hopps. A lot. So much, that it honestly scares me how much I love her. Like, I’m not sure how it is for bunnies, but when a fox falls for someone, they fall hard. Like, leave a smoldering crater from the impact hard. That’s how sure I am about Judy Hopps. I am almost worried about how in deep I am here. Like I’ve jumped right into the ocean, headfirst in a swan dive. And despite that, despite how scary this absolutely is, I am one hundred percent sure about Judy.” Nick took a hard inhale, then said, “Annnnnd that’s probably the best way to describe how fucking deep in love I am with your sister.”

 

There was a moment of silence, and then . . .

 

“What? No penis-in-vagina follow-up joke at the ready with that wording?” Judy muttered with a small smile. “‘How _fucking deep_ in love I am with your sister?’ While we’re in bed together?? C’mon Slick, even I caught that one.” To Nick’s surprise, from across the room, he also saw a small yet genuine smile flash across Jackie’s face. Humor. Which was a really good sign that so far he wasn’t fucking this up further. Yet.

 

“That’s a bold thing to say. You say that like you know for a fact that she’s your everything, mister fox,” Jackie said. “And after only one night. Which is no surprise, because she’s good at bouncing, just like any Hopps female – ”

 

A fresh wave of uncomfortable, hot embarrassment rolled across Judy’s ears. “Oh my god Jackie please don’t, you just met him.”

 

Jackie, who Nick was now beginning to get a read on, grinned and rolled her eyes. “Like we could make this rushed introduction any more awkward, Judy. But like I was saying, Mr. Wilde, you are saying some pretty big things about my Judy. Coming from a big family like ours, I’m not sure you understand how much that’s going to mean.”

 

“No,” Nick pleaded softly, hoping that he wasn’t coming across as argumentative and just praying that he conveyed clarity, “I do understand.”

 

What came out next, what spilled off his tongue, was uneven, embarrassed, and containing fragments of the ugly truth. Once more, Nick found himself opening up the past’s picture book, a collection of just _sad and damning_ memories.

 

“I don’t – I don’t come from . . . a happy family. Not really the ‘supportive and functioning’ upbringing. Those are the furthest words I’d use. ‘Barely survived’ and ‘pretty pathetic’ are more appropriate. I’ve got no siblings. No cousins or distant family that’s stayed in contact. No dad. Only my mom, and even that’s – ”

 

There was a pause, and Judy rubbed his paws and forearms under the safety of her blanket. She leaned back further into him, and felt his chest lightly jump.

 

“But that’s burying the lead,” Nick sighed. “I can’t even imagine how close and connected your family is. But judging from how much Judy – the most strong-willed mammal I have ever met – respects and values you all, enough that she wants her sister’s thoughts on me when she clearly did not need anyone’s opinion on becoming an officer, it clearly does mean a lot, what you think of me and what you think of us.”

 

“Why would it matter to you, then?” Jackie instantly fired back.

 

“Because . . . ” Nick sighed, trying to keep himself together. “Look, if we had met under other circumstances, I would be trying my damnedest to leave my best impression. I genuinely want to do that because I want to be with her. I love Judy Hopps, and it would mean the world to both of us if her family, at the very least, didn’t look at me like some . . . ‘fox’, and just tried to look at me like her partner.”

 

Another bout of silence. The fear and caution in Jackie’s eyes were mostly gone, and within them, Nick saw something he couldn’t quite place. It terrified him.

 

“And, sappy as it definitely sounds, it’d be, uhm, well, it’d be really nice if you didn’t hate me. If you looked at _who_ I am and not _what_ I am. If you just don’t like me, well yeah that sucks, but that’s life, isn’t it? I can’t help life.

 

“But I’d rather you dislike me because I can be a smartass, or even because I don’t come from a functional family, rather than hating me just because I’m some bastard, city-slicker fox that slept with your sister.”

 

With that and a hard exhale, it was all out in the open. For a complete stranger.

 

_Christ almighty, twice in twenty-four hours_ , Nick thought. _If Jackie does say one positive thing about me to the rest of her family and I am invited over, I don’t think I can do this whole ‘emotional release’ thing again if her parents ask. I should just make a recording with the carrot pen. Keep that sonuvabitch at the ready._

Jackie’s voice brought his attention back to her, and Nick saw that she was now standing, away from the door, arms crossed, and projecting an aura of confidence (or maybe trying to). He wouldn’t call her out on it.

 

Her words were measured. “You have any idea what you’ve just said? In front of me? In front of my little sister?” Jackie asked.

 

He did, but at this point the fox was exhausted, so Nick sighed and shrugged. “The truth, honestly.”

 

And in those first three words, Jackie Hopps saw it. Or, enough of it so that for the moment, it sufficed.

 

“Alright,” Jackie told them. “Alright. I believe you both. Definitely more than a one-night fling. I got it, and I am going to hold you to all of that, Mr. Wilde. Every single word, because we bunnies remember everything. And if you go back on anything – anything at all – you can bet that you’ll get the beating of a lifetime from all of us.”

 

“Fine with me,” Nick responded with a small smile at Jackie’s seemingly newfound bravado. “No intention of going back on my word.”

 

With all the serious conviction she could put on, Jackie nodded a handful of times. That, it seemed, was that. First impressions done and cleared.

 

“Well, this has been one hell of a Sunday morning, and while I would be iffy on staying any longer with you two weirdos, I need to catch my train. And reclaim my misplaced property.”

 

Nick was already picking up the – Jackie’s – iPad to pass it off. As Jackie walked towards them, Judy said, “Thanks for listening, Jackie. And for not pulling out the taser you’ve got in your back pocket at seeing him.”

 

Underneath her, Judy felt a fox go rigid. “Taser? Did you just say ‘taser’?” Nick asked.

 

“Yes, she did, and yes, I do have one,” Jackie answered. “Girls can’t be too careful these days, _especially_ in the city. But don’t you worry. You gave me no reason to use it. _Yet_.” With the last word, her eyes narrowed at his. There was now a little threat on top of that promise that he could never hurt, emotionally or otherwise, the sacred and supposedly fragile piece of bunny property named Judy.

 

“I, uh, thanks for not jumping the gun there,” Nick said, slightly leaning with an arm and iPad outstretched towards Jackie. “Would’ve made . . . this whole situation that much worse. But hey, not like it can get any more embarrassing now, right?”

 

. . . Time again for one more fastball. Well, more like a firm pitch.

 

In the quiet of the room, in the time that had passed on top of the stress, all three mammals heard a very wet slipping noise, followed by the sound of spilling fluid beneath the blanket. Nick’s knot had shrunk in size enough to come free. Judy’s eyes went wide as dinner plates at the sudden feeling of being vacated and at feeling his seed pool against her legs.

 

“Huh, guess that’s time,” Nick said with such out-of-place nonchalance. “I came free. Heh, see? _I came??_ Still got my joking self-awareness intact, thank you very much.”

 

Jackie, who heard the noise clear as a whistle, wordlessly mouthed back, ‘Came . . . free . . . ?’

 

And then she got it. At least half of it. At least enough to partially get it. Her face warped into pure shock at their audacity.

 

Jackie: “OHMYGOD YOU ARE SHITTING ME RIGHT NOW HAS HE BEEN INSIDE YOU THIS WHOLE TIME WHILE WE WERE HAVING A HEART-TO-HEART??!!

 

Nick: “Well, half ‘heart-to-heart’ and half threats against my life, but hey, I’ll take it.”

 

Judy: “Jackie! Please stop yelling! I’ve put my neighbors through enough!”

 

From the other side of her apartment wall, the three mammals heard, “Ah c’mon Judy! It was just getting good again!”

 

“Yeah! Why did you have to drag us into this? We were perfectly fine being quiet, and there’s nothing illegal about listening in on your neighbors!”

 

~

 

It was only after Judy had finally gotten dressed and walked Jackie out – Nick heard Judy promise that she would explain male fox anatomy and all of the ensuing, gory details to Jackie _later_ – when the pair sat facing each other on the bed. Each exhaled in relief.

 

Judy made further light of their situation by pretending to check the time on her empty wrist. “Quite the start to our new relationship. Not even twenty-four hours in. How you hangin’ in there, Slick?”

 

“Quite honestly, I’m exhausted. But good! Relieved that that went . . . well, went okay as it could have. But I cannot do that whole ‘emotional bunny spill your soul out to someone other than yourself’ kinda thing again. I just did that twice. In the span of one calendar day. I’ve never done that once in my whole life. So not again, at least not for another year.” Nick considered something and then stated, “I think you’re rubbing off on me Judy.”

 

Nick seemed to think for another moment before adding, “And – and I kinda like it.”

 

She leaned over and put her nose against his, breathing in then out against the wet, cool surface. Judy, normally, would’ve wanted to go do something. Explore the city was always a sure bet. It was something that Nick personally excelled at, a fox that knew every other mammal, knew all of the hidden gems and treasures and secrets. And best still, he was always keen to share them with her.

 

So when he asked her, “You wanna lay back down for a little bit?” with his eyes closed and his nose breathing her in, Judy responded with an eager nod. Because everything would be there when they woke up, including all of the spots, dives, locales, locals, events, and memories they would make together. Including meeting the families, and having proper introductions. It would all be there, right out their door, for the rest of today and the days following. They had all the time in the world.

 

Because ‘he’ and ‘her’ were now also a ‘they’, and they were ready to take on their city and all it had to offer and all it was going to throw at them, fastballs be damned.

 

But for now, they definitely needed a quick power nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that, for this story anyways, is Fin. 
> 
> For everyone that is still reading this, bless your patient souls. Truly, to have the patience to keep with my slow as molasses in winter update schedule means the world over and my one regret is that i am unable to write any faster and maintain the quality i hope i put out. So from me to you, thank you! It has been such a learning experience trying my hand at romance and erotica, and i hope that the end product was at the very least okay!
> 
> For anyone who cares to know or is wondering, there will be another story that will follow the events of this story and Ars Moriendi. It will be another dark procedural thriller with what i hope is an exciting and kinda neat additional element, and i hope that after writing two stories and several shorts i am more prepared to tackle and present what i have had in mind for quite some time now. I think this fandom is in need of more mysteries and serious, procedural works. And of course, more short stories in the form of smut, fluff, comedy, very strange and dark things, probably more smut, etc. 
> 
> As always, i'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter or even the whole story itself in general! It let's me know where i went right, where i need improvement, and what possibilities to consider.
> 
> Lastly, again, to all that have read and commented and liked this hack's attempt at romance, it's been wonderful. Thank you. Here's to what's next!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again everyone! First real foray into romance. I'm excited. Hope you are too.


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